"The meaning of the admonition--four words most often forgotten, ignored or intentionally violated--seems so simple: 'Thou shall not kill.' Here nineteen essayists remind us that there have been those among us who understood the meaning--and who sought to give Life to The Law."
>"One fine day when the death penalty is abolished in Tennessee, we'll want to know how it happened. This book, edited by my good friends Amy Sayward and Margaret Vandiver, will tell the story--in riveting detail." --Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

>Surprisingly, prior to this book, there has been no examination of capital punishment in Tennessee within the context of the larger national debate on the death penalty. While Tennessee has a death penalty system similar to those of many other Southern states only six people have been executed in the state since then, despite the overwhelming concentration of executions in the South.
>A provocative contribution to one of the signal debates of our time, this book illuminates the myriad ways in which the various forces involved in the controversy--from history, politics, and culture to individuals and organizations--have collided, intersected, and coexisted in unique ways in Tennessee.

Amy L. Sayward is chair and professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. She is also the author of The Birth of Development: How the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization Changed the World, 1945-1965.

Margaret Vandiver is professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Memphis. She is the author of Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South.