Should there be a death penalty

The young man, named Adam Hall has never gotten to know his grandfather, Sam. He goes to work as Sam’s lawyer so he can be with him through his final appeals. Sam is a very bad man. He has killed several people. He is a terrible racist and was a member of the KKK. Despite all of this, the book does a wonderful job showing us his humanity. Even though he has killed, the irony of the story is the fact that he didn’t kill the girl they are executing him for.
This book caused me to view inmates on death row as humans, not just criminals. The scary thing about the book is that even though I feel Sam was a horrible person, I question the rights of the state to take his life. If it really is about protecting society, then let him stay in jail forever. The book also helped me see how there might bee mistakes made along the way that would send an innocent person to the death chamber. It is true that Sam was guilty of many crimes, but not guilty of the crime for which he was executed. I found myself wondering how often this happened in America and other places where criminals are executed. I came away from the book feeling that no one should be executed because the likelihood of making a mistake was too high.