Book of the Month Club
This month’s featured selection:
“A Saint on Death Row” By Thomas Cahill

Reviewed by Kay Cozad

“A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green,” By Thomas Cahill (Doubleday, ISBN: 978-0-385-52019-5)
This month’s book club choice is a sobering story of a young man unjustly accused of murder and how his imprisonment transformed his life and the lives of so many others. “A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green,” was written by New York Times best-selling author Thomas Cahill, who met with the imprisoned Green throughout his final year on death row.

The 144-page tome begins with a painful description of the unimaginable horrors that young Green endured as a youth with his alcohol and drug addicted parents. Eventually he found himself a young homeless teen struggling with the law, with only his innate goodness to guide him as he fought to protect his two younger brothers from the violence and neglect of their home life.

A strange turn of events lands Green, then 18, in jail, accused of robbery and eventually of murder. The details outlined by the author of the insufficient testimony and unbelievable ineptness of Green’s court-appointed counsel during court proceedings shines light on the darkness of not only the injustice of racism, but of the seriously flawed United States judicial system.

The bulk of the remaining chapters journey through the final 12 years of Green’s life on death row, including his ineffectual appeals process; the victim’s family’s response to the injustice of Green’s incarceration and eventual execution; the involvement of the Community of Sant’Egidio, an international religious community, in his appeal; the historic visit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and much more.

The pages are sprinkled with letters and poems written by Green himself providing a deeply personal look at the heart of this tortured soul. His simple eloquence belies his true character though in the tales of his care and concern for others.

Details of his “inventive variety of ploys” to raise the spirits of his fellow inmates — even as they suffer in solitary confinement — offer a sense of his wit, intelligence and leadership. Though the book commands the readers’ attention, its content jumps from unpleasant to ridiculous in its injustice, and forges a trail of dismay.

But redemption comes by getting to know Green, who on this horrifying journey not only quells his deep seated rage but finds purpose in educating himself and others on the merits of mercy and forgiveness. Building his character and his belief in the good of man and God in solitary confinement was evidenced in the ways he reached out to others in prison and on the outside.

And in the end when all else had failed this young man of faith, so inspired and inspiring, comforted those who had stood by him in his quest for justice. The injustice of his execution by lethal injection wrenches the heart and cries out for retribution, yet among his final words were, “I am not angry, but I am disappointed that I was denied justice.”
Finally, the author offers food for thought in three areas of social life that require review; protection of children, the end of the death penalty and the humane reform of prisons.

“A Saint on Death Row” is an eye opening, riveting read — though sometimes difficult to stomach. A must read for those who might require a nudge in the direction of social justice, equality and faith.