Lethal Justice: One Man's Journey of Hope on Death Row / Joy Elder

Experiences of a condemned man and one who befriended him
"I felt compelled to write Lethal Justice after having been present as a witness when my penfriend Lesley Gosch was strapped down and murdered by lethal injection in America's killing capital: Huntsville, Texas. I shared all of this with some close friends, who told me that I must write it all down.

In the book, we read through several letters of Lesley Gosch, dating from 1992 to 1998. We see a man without bitterness, a man whose life on Death Row is spent studying religion and philosophy, writing, painting and drawing and helping inmates less gifted than himself deal with their essential yet fruitless and futile legal procedures. We see him struggling against despair and despondency and rising to quite extraordinary levels of faith and hope. Ultimately, he is able to forgive those who kill him.

Myself and my friend were deeply moved by their meetings with him and with others on Death Row. We found that we were inspired by our friends in ways which have had a profound effect on our own lives. To see such people being routinely taken out and slaughtered beggars belief and fuels our passion to bring an end to this barbaric practice.

I wholeheartedly hope that the book will add its voice to the ever-growing revulsion against the death penalty. I hope to show that the death penalty is no academic issue, but a life and death concern. It is an issue about real people: people of whom we can all say "there but for the grace of God...""