Busman's Holiday

Mary Whisner, University of Washington School of Law, has published Bitten by the Reading Bug, at 105 Law Library Journal 113. Here is the abstract.

I read a lot in my spare time; sometimes my reading includes books about law. This essay discusses a number of recent books and explores how such reading can be helpful for a reference librarian. I begin with James E. Clapp et al., Lawtalk (2011), a wide-ranging book that uses colorful legal terms as springboards for discussions of legal history or policy. And then I have briefer discussions of books related to some of the topics in Lawtalk:

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010)

Alexandra Natapoff, Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice (2009)

David E. Stannard, Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i (2005)

Three memoirs about death penalty work:

• Andrea D. Lyon, Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer (2010)

• David R. Dow, Autobiography of an Execution (2010)

• Ian Graham, Unbillable Hours (2010)

Mark Prothero, Defending Gary (2006)

Death Penalty Stories (John H. Blume & Jordan M. Streiker eds., 2009) and Legal Ethics Stories (Deborah L. Rhode & David Luban eds., 2006)

Shon Hopwood, Law Man

Download the full text of the article from SSRN at the link.

Hollywood and the Death Penalty

David Ray Papke, Marquette Law School, has published Muted Message: Capital Punishment in the Hollywood Cinema as Marquette Law School Legal Studies Paper No. 12-25. Here is the abstract.

Contemporary Hollywood films seem at first glance to be opposed to capital punishment. However, this article’s consideration of five surprisingly similar films (Dead Man Walking, The Chamber, Last Dance, True Crime, and The Life of David Gale) finds they do not truly and consistently condemn capital punishment. Instead of suggesting that the practice of capital punishment is fundamentally immoral and should in general be ended, the films champion only worthy individuals on death row and delight primarily in the personal growth of other characters who attempt to aid the condemned. In the end, Hollywood offers only a muted message regarding the on-going use of capital punishment.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.