Review Essay: Feminism, Lawyering, and Death Row

Review of Law and Women's Studies, Vol. 2, 1992

25 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2012

See all articles by Joan W. Howarth

Joan W. Howarth

William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV

Date Written: 1992

Abstract

Representing men on death row is confounding, but not without reward. This lawyering work has taught me at least two lessons, the subjects of this essay. First, capital punishment--our attempt to use legal procedures to kill people fairly--is a feminist issue, or should be. Second, death row representation is too big a job for lawyers; we need to recruit poets. To develop these ideas, and perhaps to convince you without requiring you to undertake the same path to these conclusions, I am appropriating novelist Beverly Lowry's stunning new book, Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir. Crossed Over is the story of Lowry's friendship with Karla Faye Tucker, a woman on death row in Texas. Lowry is the poet on Tucker's team. The publisher instructs booksellers to place Crossed Over on the “Memoir” or “True Crime” shelf. If shelves were built for “Insights into Death Row Representation,” or even “Illustrations of Relational Feminism,” Crossed Over would belong there as well.

Keywords: death row, death penalty, women, female, feminism, Karla Faye Tucker

Suggested Citation

Howarth, Joan W., Review Essay: Feminism, Lawyering, and Death Row (1992). Review of Law and Women's Studies, Vol. 2, 1992, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2184882

Joan W. Howarth (Contact Author)

William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV ( email )

4505 South Maryland Parkway
Box 451003
Las Vegas, NV 89154
United States

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