999

On death row, the poorest and most numerous, with no family and no decent lawyer, are sometimes executed before all their appeals have been exhausted. Their fate consigned to modest prison cemeteries. In Texas, the number engraved on the cement stone begins with 999. Out of 50 American states, 34 still have the death penalty. Why and how? The author's investigation took him to California, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. A human immersion into the heart of American society and its judicial system, through encounters with death row inmates, lawyers and victims' families. This fascinating book finely deconstructs the American myth of fair and infallible justice—from the deplorable conditions of confinement to daily abuse, from random legal recourse to political and judicial manipulation. More than just a sentence, the death penalty appears to be torture with many faces. And in an America on the move, there are signs that abolition is on the way. 999, is the fruit of a fact-finding mission carried out by the French association, Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), with financial support from the European Union.