Living on Death Row

Living on Death Row represents a 13-year ethnographic study of men awaiting their execution while confined on Ohio's Death Row (DR). Lose was granted unprecedented access to conduct confidential interviews in a supermax environment. Slowly he developed a mutual trust with the inmates, and they began to open up about their crimes, lives, hopes, fears and impending executions. Reading Death Row statistics can be a blasé experience to some, upsetting to others. But nothing compares to confronting the rampant injustices, horrendous misconceptions and lies about the culture of Death Row. A few are innocent, most are guilty, but all were found guilty of capital murder — not because of their crimes — but due to poverty, mental illness, or minority status. Equally upsetting were the frank, open discussions of their homicides.