BIRMINGHAM, Ala (WIAT) - Defense Attorney Richard Jaffe doesn't believe he will change minds about the death penalty with his new book out in February, Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned. But he does hope the public will at least begin to ask more questions.
Among those questions the cost of the death penalty and his belief that it does not deter crime. He also objects to the way death sentences are handed out, something he likens to a game of chance. "It's a lottery, a true lottery. You have no idea who gets it even if you knew the facts of the case first which end in execution and which don't."
Jaffe says we need to take a hard look at our justice system with 138 people let off death row after new trials. Jaffe has helped clear four death row inmates. His book profiles some of those cases. "We have to conclude others have slipped through the cracks and been executed we don't know about."
He predicts the Troy Davis case may point to the end of the death penalty. The Georgia man was executed despite widespread doubts about his guilt.
http://www.questforjusticethebook.com/