A forthcoming book, Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys by Susannah Sheffer, explores the impact of the death penalty on defense attorneys with clients on death row. Through interviews with capital defenders, the author examines how attorneys try to cope with the stress of representing clients facing execution. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, said, “This is an important book. The death penalty’s impact is so much broader than we realize, and these attorneys are affected in ways that even I had not imagined. I am grateful to Susannah Sheffer for bringing these stories to light.” Richard Burr, a prominent capital defense attorney, called the book “a beautiful, heartbreaking, and above all uplifting story that makes an essential contribution to literature on the death penalty.” The book is available through Amazon and other outlets.
(S. Shaffer, “Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys,” Vanderbilt University Press (March 2013); DPIC posted Feb. 5, 2013). See Books and Representation.
- Death Penalty Information Center (2025, March 14). BOOKS: The Impact of the Death Penalty on Attorneys for the Condemned. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-the-impact-of-the-death-penalty-on-attorneys-for-the-condemned
- Death Penalty Information Center. “BOOKS: The Impact of the Death Penalty on Attorneys for the Condemned.” Last modified March 14, 2025. Accessed October 4, 2026. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-the-impact-of-the-death-penalty-on-attorneys-for-the-condemned.
- Death Penalty Information Center. “BOOKS: The Impact of the Death Penalty on Attorneys for the Condemned.” Death Penalty Information Center, 14 Mar. 2025, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-the-impact-of-the-death-penalty-on-attorneys-for-the-condemned. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.
