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Death by Installments: The Ordeal of Willie Francis
The principle revealed in Death by Installments is that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment does not guarantee protection to black men who kill whites. Reading the carefully researched and well-told story of Willie Francis offers a four-decade-old view of both the society's commitment to this principle, and the Supreme Court's unwillingness then and now to challenge it.
Derrick Bell, Harvard Law School
…not just a `good' but a splendidly written, expertly researched, grippingly told, and passionately presented tome that can proudly take its place alongside Anthony Lewis' Gideon's Trumpet .
Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia
The case of Willie Francis has been scrutinized and reexamined over the past several decades, and it is still not clear whether he was guilty of the crime for which he was executed in Louisiana forty years ago. Miller and Bowman's book recounts the ordeal of this teenaged black youth who was sent a second time to the electric chair a year after repeated attempts to supply enough current to kill him failed. His tragic story raises disturbing questions not only about capital punishment itself but about the humanity of our methods of carrying out executions and our capacity as a nation to uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
Miller and Bowman describe Francis' experiences from the time of his arrest, and they review the legal struggles within the Supreme Court that followed the botched execution attempt. In considering Eighth Amendment provisions against cruel and unusual punishment, the Court held that Willie Francis' previous subjection to electrical current did not make his subsequent electrocution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other electrocution. The authors examine the far-reaching implications of this stand in light of the many similar--but unpublicized--incidents of prolonged, agonizing executions by electrocution, gas, and even lethal injection. They contend that the Court has never faced the issue squarely and that its failure to set limits on the inflicting of pain in the Willie Francis case renders the Eighth Amendment guarantee meaningless.
Derrick Bell, Harvard Law School
…not just a `good' but a splendidly written, expertly researched, grippingly told, and passionately presented tome that can proudly take its place alongside Anthony Lewis' Gideon's Trumpet .
Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia
The case of Willie Francis has been scrutinized and reexamined over the past several decades, and it is still not clear whether he was guilty of the crime for which he was executed in Louisiana forty years ago. Miller and Bowman's book recounts the ordeal of this teenaged black youth who was sent a second time to the electric chair a year after repeated attempts to supply enough current to kill him failed. His tragic story raises disturbing questions not only about capital punishment itself but about the humanity of our methods of carrying out executions and our capacity as a nation to uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
Miller and Bowman describe Francis' experiences from the time of his arrest, and they review the legal struggles within the Supreme Court that followed the botched execution attempt. In considering Eighth Amendment provisions against cruel and unusual punishment, the Court held that Willie Francis' previous subjection to electrical current did not make his subsequent electrocution any more cruel in the constitutional sense than any other electrocution. The authors examine the far-reaching implications of this stand in light of the many similar--but unpublicized--incidents of prolonged, agonizing executions by electrocution, gas, and even lethal injection. They contend that the Court has never faced the issue squarely and that its failure to set limits on the inflicting of pain in the Willie Francis case renders the Eighth Amendment guarantee meaningless.
189 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 1988
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February 14, 2023
NOTE: This review/rating is for a play not currently on Goodreads
Lawrence B Fox has a play on his website, Ol' Sparky, that also tells the story of Willie Francis. I had the opportunity to stage manage or audition for the show, so I read it and figured I need all the help I can on my Goodreads challenge, so I'm tracking it here under Arthur Miller's play.
Luckily for me, my rating matches the only other one for Death by Installments—I've heard that the online version (82 pages) is outdated and certain aspects have changed (e.g., the 15-year-old is no longer white—such a weird change—and the execution scene was rewritten). I'll be interested to see how the production goes in April and wonder if I should have auditioned for it (sadly my kids are still too young for me to leave my partner alone with them 2-4 nights a week)
Lawrence B Fox has a play on his website, Ol' Sparky, that also tells the story of Willie Francis. I had the opportunity to stage manage or audition for the show, so I read it and figured I need all the help I can on my Goodreads challenge, so I'm tracking it here under Arthur Miller's play.
Luckily for me, my rating matches the only other one for Death by Installments—I've heard that the online version (82 pages) is outdated and certain aspects have changed (e.g., the 15-year-old is no longer white—such a weird change—and the execution scene was rewritten). I'll be interested to see how the production goes in April and wonder if I should have auditioned for it (sadly my kids are still too young for me to leave my partner alone with them 2-4 nights a week)
Displaying 1 of 1 review