If I Should Die: A Death Row Correspondence - Softcover

In July 1991 Andrew Lee Jones became the last person to die in 'Old Sparky', Louisiana's electric chair. Over the preceding fifteen months, Andrew corresponded with Jane Officer, an English woman whom he met through a penfriend organization based in England. Andrew was 35, poor, black and a convicted criminal; his English friend was white, middle class and 55. She travelled to the USA for the first time in her life to plead for Andrew's life at a Pardon Board hearing, and spent his last few hours with him and his family.
These edited letters and diaries are a moving account of their unusual but important friendship. They are introduced by Jane Officer, who describes how she came to know Andrew Lee Jones through their letter writing, and the effects that the correspondence had on them both. In a concluding chapter Sarah Ottinger, an attorney who worked on Andrew's case, explains the doubts surrounding his trial and highlights the weaknesses in defendant representation in American capital trials.
This book will be of interest to human rights activists and death penalty abolitionists, and to those studying criminology, law and public administration.