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A review by bookbrig
No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
These stories underscore faults in America's criminal system, but the gut wrenching part is the simple, stark way each guy describes their crime. The banal moments that lead to ending up on death row made the book for me. Clearly, the author is not pro-death penalty, the stories have a bias, but the interviews with these guys are their own justification for the book's leanings.
As soon as I put the book down, I re-watched the documentary At The Death House Door. The film is about a retired chaplain who used to work in the Walls unit at the prison in Huntsville, TX - the prison mentioned in Chapter Four of No Choirboy. I really enjoy observing similar situations from different perspectives, and the film dovetails with the last three chapters of the book beautifully. Neither the book nor the film is particularly dogmatic, and I think I might be able to potentially structure a teen program around them.
Also, have a quote from the book that pretty much embodies the emotional gut check you'll find in each story:
The sheriff – he died a few months ago – did the best thing anyone ever did for me. When I passed my GED, he let me go to the graduation ceremony. Cap’n’ gown, suit and tie. No handcuffs, no shackles. He got my mom to buy two long-stem roses, one for my teacher and one for my girlfriend.
I was in the free world with regular people. He made the guards wear suits and ties like everybody else. That’s the coolest thing anyone ever did for me in my life!
That sheriff, he caught hell doing what he did for me. “Why you let that murderer out?” Oh, he caught hell.
Later, I wrote him. I wrote him right before I got off death row. I told him that was the single most important thing anyone done for me. I appreciated him. I didn’t expect him to do it. I said, “I appreciate everything you did. Even though I be on death row, I’ll do whatever I can to better myself. And if you can’t write back, I will understand.” – Roy Burgess Jr.
As soon as I put the book down, I re-watched the documentary At The Death House Door. The film is about a retired chaplain who used to work in the Walls unit at the prison in Huntsville, TX - the prison mentioned in Chapter Four of No Choirboy. I really enjoy observing similar situations from different perspectives, and the film dovetails with the last three chapters of the book beautifully. Neither the book nor the film is particularly dogmatic, and I think I might be able to potentially structure a teen program around them.
Also, have a quote from the book that pretty much embodies the emotional gut check you'll find in each story:
The sheriff – he died a few months ago – did the best thing anyone ever did for me. When I passed my GED, he let me go to the graduation ceremony. Cap’n’ gown, suit and tie. No handcuffs, no shackles. He got my mom to buy two long-stem roses, one for my teacher and one for my girlfriend.
I was in the free world with regular people. He made the guards wear suits and ties like everybody else. That’s the coolest thing anyone ever did for me in my life!
That sheriff, he caught hell doing what he did for me. “Why you let that murderer out?” Oh, he caught hell.
Later, I wrote him. I wrote him right before I got off death row. I told him that was the single most important thing anyone done for me. I appreciated him. I didn’t expect him to do it. I said, “I appreciate everything you did. Even though I be on death row, I’ll do whatever I can to better myself. And if you can’t write back, I will understand.” – Roy Burgess Jr.