Anatomy of Injustice

Raymond Bonner's account of a mildly retarded man convicted in 1982 of a murder he did not commit and sentenced to death is sobering, especially as the rest of the Western world abolished capital punishment decades ago. Bonner cites a Supreme Court opinion from the 1930s that sets a standard that is ignored at a nation's peril: It is not victory at all costs that prosecutors must seek, but justice. For me, the best arguments for abolition are still to be found in Arthur Koestler's Reflections on Hanging.