The Death Penalty

Chronicles of State-Sanctioned Deaths

Inside a quiet state prison, a chaplain bears witness to the most private ritual of American justice.
For years he has stood behind the glass, between those who wait and those who act—recording every detail the official reports leave behind. Now, in this anonymous account drawn from a lifetime of service, he tells what it means to serve both faith and procedure in a system built for silence.

Told with restraint and moral clarity, The Death Penalty: Chronicles of State-Sanctioned Deaths is neither argument nor exposé. It is a meditation on duty, belief, and the cost of remaining human inside the machinery of order. Through the chaplain’s eyes we see the bureaucracy of mercy, the language that hides guilt, and the small, unrecorded gestures that remind us compassion still flickers in the darkest rooms.

Written in the voice of a man who has seen too much and spoken too little, this book asks one unanswerable question:

When justice demands silence, what happens to those who must listen?