Abstract
Thousands of individuals sit on death row across the United States. Postconviction capital defense attorneys are the last chance for death row individuals to be spared the death penalty or receive a delay in their execution. In Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys, Susannah Sheffer attempts to understand the experiences of attorneys who do postconviction capital defense work. The book contributes to the literature on capital punishment by providing readers the opportunity to understand how capital punishment affects a group of individuals typically excluded from conversation. Written by the current project director and staff writer for Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, this book is a resource for individuals interested in capital punishment. The purpose of the book is to gain insight into the lives of individuals who work closely with the death penalty.
Through her insider role of working with the death penalty, Sheffer was able to gain access to this special population. Using snowball sampling technique, Sheffer gained access to 20 experienced capital defenders and conducted in-person interviews with each during the time period of January to November of 2010. To be eligible for participation, each attorney must have lost at least one client to the death penalty. Sheffer revealed that most had lost 15–20 clients. The majority of interviews took place in private locations and the names of the participants remained confidential. The sample had an average of 19 years of practicing postconviction capital defense work, ranging between 8 and 32 years. Of the 20 participants, 6 were women and 14 were men. At the time of the interviews, all participants worked in the southern region of the United States, where the majority of executions take place.
The book is divided into 10 logical and readable chapters. The first chapter details the author’s methodology. The remaining nine chapters focus on various themes that Sheffer encountered during her interviews. The four major themes I have identified are motivation, costs, rewards, and loss.
Motivations
Throughout the interviews, Sheffer was able to provide readers with insight into why these attorneys chose to practice in postconviction capital defense work and what motivates them to stay in a field where turnover is quite high. Sheffer explores the various emotional, intellectual, social, and personal motivations during her interviews. Intellectually, the attorneys are aware that their work is one of the most challenging areas for lawyers to work in, a motivation that keeps the attorneys from practicing another area of law. The social motivations are the most common explored throughout the text. The examples of unethical executions weigh heavily on the attorneys. The social responsibility to “fight the unjust system” keeps the attorneys highly motivated to do postconviction work. On a personal level, the attorneys feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, noting that the desire to make a difference in the world is being fulfilled through this career.
Costs
Sheffer highlights the costs associated with being a postconviction capital defense attorney. Although most attorneys’ work is time-sensitive, the capital defense attorneys are acutely aware that a missed deadline can mean the difference between life and death for their client. This theme explores how handling these pressures can sometimes interfere with their mental and physical well-being. In addition, while their careers are unconventional, their personal lives are not. As the author contends, the attorneys have spouses, children, and family who desire their attentive presence. Still, they must establish a balance between the ever-present responsibility of having a life in their hands and the ability to satisfy the needs of the ones who matter the most to them, all the while maintaining a healthy mental and physical well-being.
Rewards
Sheffer delves into the rewards defense attorneys receive within this field. Some of the rewards are inherently connected to the attorney’s motivations. The feeling of helping people, making a difference in the world, and being involved in civil rights work are some intrinsic needs that are fulfilled by the nature of the job. However, the relationships the attorneys build with their clients are the most frequently cited rewards throughout the text. These same clients are the ones frequently referred to as “monsters” by the media. Sheffer’s accounts of the years attorneys spend with their clients allow the reader to humanize the individuals the United States executes. The greatest reward for postconviction attorneys is sparing their client of the death penalty and saving their life. Although extremely rare, the attorneys are constantly striving for the ultimate reward while understanding that the definition of success must be defined by smaller victories (i.e., a stay in execution).
Loss
Although the attorneys are acutely aware of the odds of losing a client, the loss of a client is emotionally, physically, and psychologically draining for the attorneys. In addition, postconviction attorneys can deal with more loss in a year than some individuals deal with in a decade. The heart-wrenching stories of losing clients and how the attorneys deal with the losses are explored through several chapters of the book. Sheffer is able to get the attorneys to reveal their feelings of loss and executions so vividly the reader feels as though they are at the execution or feeling the loss of the client themselves.
Overall, Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experiences of Capital Defense Attorneys takes readers on a journey through the lives of those who repeatedly witness the impact of capital punishment. I would recommend this book to psychologists, as this book points out the difficulties psychologists have counseling individuals in this field. In addition, I would recommend this book to scholars interested in the death penalty and as a supplemental reading in undergraduate courses that focus on the death penalty. Finally, I would recommend this book to individuals who are interested in stories of injustice.