About the Book
In this stark and powerful book, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian explore life on Death Row in Texas and in other states, as well as the convoluted and arbitrary judicial processes that populate all Death Rows. They document the capriciousness of capital punishment and capture the day-to-day experiences of Death Row inmates in the official "nonperiod" between sentencing and execution.
In the first section, "Pictures," ninety-two photographs taken during their fieldwork for the book and documentary film "Death Row" illustrate life on cell block J in Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. The second section, "Words," further reveals the world of Death Row prisoners and offers an unflinching commentary on the judicial system and the fates of the men they met on the Row. The third section, "Working," addresses profound moral and ethical issues the authors have encountered throughout their careers documenting the Row.
Included is a DVD of Jackson and Christian's 1979 documentary film, "Death Row."
About the Author :
Bruce Jackson is James Agee Professor of American Culture and SUNY Distinguished Professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is author of numerous books and films, including the book "Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture."
Review :
""In This Timeless Time" presents images and words of condemned men who are otherwise abstractions and provides a compelling history of death row over the last thirty years. Nothing like this book exists, or could ever exist again. I could not recommend this book more strongly."--Billy Sothern, death penalty lawyer and author of "Down In New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City"
"In the over twenty years since Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian's work on a Texas death row began, correcting the injustices of capital punishment has been much too slow. "In This Timeless Time" underscores how urgent and critical it is to give voice to the voiceless, hope to the hopeless. This first-rate work speaks to our shared need as Americans to right the wrong that is capital punishment."--John Lewis, U.S. congressman and civil rights leader
"In "In This Timeless Time", authors Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian have accomplished something quite remarkable. Granted virtually unprecedented access to one of the darkest, least-seen sectors of American society (Death Row), and they have emerged from this foreboding place with something terrible and beautiful. For what is more terrible than this modern-day place of skulls, this (to quote a former Supreme Court justice, Harry Blackmun) "machinery of death"?
Beauty? Where can beauty be in such a haunting, fatal place? And then one looks at photos, black and white, showing men at play, men in tight discussion, men with visages of hopelessness, loss, and hope. Yes, hope.
The access shown here, to make such a project possible with few restrictions, would scarcely happen today. The authors reveal a Death Row (in Texas's infamous Ellis Unit) that was, as horrible as it was, light years better than the bitter present.
A revelation came to me as I gazed at these pictures from the recent past, and over a thousand miles away: every death row is different; and every death row is the same.
Jackson and Christian have pulled back the proverbial curtain so that all can see the American Way of Death."--Mumia Abu-Jamal, co-author of "The Classroom and the Cell"
""These photos rewind, then freeze, time, catapulting me back to a place that still invades the core of who and what I am today, nearly thirty-four years later. Most everyone in this book was executed. Most everyone said they were innocent. I did too . . . and I was. 'It's not about innocence or guilt, Kerry, ' Bruce Jackson told me in 1979 as I peered out of my cell during our first interview. 'It's about what we do as a society.' I didn't get it back then, but I do now. With this book, Bruce and Diane have captured the face of America's death penalty machine."--Kerry Max Cook, former prisoner "Cook, Ex: "600," exonerated through DNA testing after serving 22 years
"In "In This Timeless Time," authors Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian have accomplished something quite remarkable. Granted virtually unprecedented access to one of the darkest, least-seen sectors of American society (Death Row), and they have emerged from this foreboding place with something terrible and beautiful. For what is more terrible than this modern-day place of skulls, this (to quote a former Supreme Court justice, Harry Blackmun) "machinery of death"?
Beauty? Where can beauty be in such a haunting, fatal place? And then one looks at photos, black and white, showing men at play, men in tight discussion, men with visages of hopelessness, loss, and hope. Yes, hope.
The access shown here, to make such a project possible with few restrictions, would scarcely happen today. The authors reveal a Death Row (in Texas's infamous Ellis Unit) that was, as horrible as it was, light years better than the bitter present.
A revelation came to me as I gazed at these pictures from the recent past, and over a thousand miles away: every death row is different; and every death row is the same.
Jackson and Christian have pulled back the proverbial curtain so that all can see the American Way of Death."--Mumia Abu-Jamal, co-author of "The Classroom and the Cell"
"With absolute fairness and profound honesty, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian carry us into the tragic world of a group of prisoners living on a Texas Death Row. Through unforgettable stories and photos, we come to feel the suffering, guilt, and confusion of these men, as well as their inextinguishable human dignity. We are also given a vital lesson in the strange element of chance that lies at the foundation of capital punishment, our correction system's 'most significant act.' This powerful book calls us to reflect on the extraordinary circumstance of prisoners not 'doing time' but waiting for time to run out on Death Rows all over America."--Sister Helen Prejean
