'Poignant and hugely powerful . . . a forensic and yet heartfelt examination of the cases for and against capital punishment' Daily Telegraph As a pioneer of the modern legal thriller and a criminal lawyer, Scott Turow has been involved with the death penalty for more than a decade, including successfully representing two different men convicted in death-penalty prosecutions. In this vivid account, Turow describes his own experiences with capital punishment from his days as an impassioned young prosecutor to his service on the Illinois commission which investigated the administration of the death penalty and influenced Governor George Ryan's unprecedented commutation of the sentences of 164 death-row inmates on his last day in office. Along the way, he provides a brief history of America's ambivalent relationship with the ultimate punishment and illuminates the powerful stories behind the statistics, as he moves from the Governor's Mansion to Illinois' state-of-the art 'super-max' prison and the execution chamber. 'Gripping and lucid' Sunday Times