It’s 2:05am and I am wide awake. I’ve turned off the light and shut my eyes, tried to fall asleep, but simply couldn’t. Not until I’ve written this blog entry about the incredible book I’ve just finished. I’ve not been affected so much by a book in a long time.
Image from SusanKuklin.com
The title of the book is No Choirboy: Murder, Violence and Teenagers on Death Row, by non-fiction writer and photographer Susan Kuklin. This is what it says on the book jacket:
Until recently, only eight countries in the world still sentenced people younger than eighteen to death for their crimes – Iran, China, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, and the United States of America.
No Choirboy takes readers into American prisons and allows inmates sentenced to death as teenagers to speak for themselves. In their own voices – raw and uncensored – they talk about their lives in prison and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there. Susan Kuklin also gets inside the system, exploring capital punishment itself and the intricacies and inequities of criminal justice in the United States.
This is a searing, unforgettable read, one that could change the way we think about crime and punishment.
Published in 2008, the book contains interviews and/or writing from two inmates who were on death row for murders they committed before the age of 18, one inmate who received a life sentence after being tried as an adult for a murder he committed at 14, the family of a young man who had been executed, the family of a murder victim (who still oppose the death penalty) and a prominent anti-death penalty lawyer in the United States of America.
Although I was already firmly anti-death penalty before I read this book, reading it gave me yet another perspective. For a long time I have been making reasoned arguments against the death penalty, but this book made everything so clear in a way that no logical argument can quite match. No Choirboy forces the reader to acknowledge the fact that these inmates, these inmates who have committed violent crimes, who have been written off and rejected by society, are still PEOPLE.
Real people of flesh and blood and bone, just like you or I. Real people with thoughts and feelings and hopes and regrets.
Once you’re confronted by that fact, once you’ve heard their individual voices coming through in the book, questions follow naturally. Are they really incapable of change? Are they really unable to redeem themselves? Do they deserve forgiveness? Is it justified for us to turn out backs on them and condemn them to death?
Image from SusanKuklin.com
As Bryan Stevenson (the lawyer interviewed in the book) says, “Are you the sum total of your worst acts?” It is an important question, one that everyone should try to answer when reflecting upon capital punishment, no matter what their stance is.
I don’t want to spoil the book for those who are planning to read it – and I hope it’s all of you who are reading this entry – so I won’t go into details about the different interviewees. I will just say this: once you’ve heard their stories the situation becomes no longer black/white, because it is impossible to define them simply as villains unworthy of compassion or mercy. The interview with the family of a murder victim is also extremely thought-provoking. When a victim’s family can find it in their heart to show mercy, how can we in all good conscience keep baying for blood?
Although the book deals with the American justice and penal systems (before the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to sentence those below eighteen to death), the issue of capital punishment and the questions raised remain the same for the death penalty anywhere in the world. And reading this book, I could not help but draw connections to the campaigning that’s going on in Singapore and Malaysia against the death penalty in general, but also more specifically for the life of Yong Vui Kong.
Vui Kong is on the far right.
Like the boys in No Choirboy, Yong Vui Kong was a teenager when he was arrested. He was above 18, and therefore could be sentenced to death in Singapore. He has spent the past 3 years on death row.
However, unlike the inmates in the book, Vui Kong was not arrested for a violent crime or murder. He was arrested for drug trafficking, because he had 47g of heroin on him. That was enough to get him the mandatory death penalty.
After reading No Choirboy, I could not say that none of the inmates in the book did not deserve a chance to redeem themselves. If even those who have been convicted of murder can show remorse and a sincere desire to change, why can’t Vui Kong? Indeed, he has already shown us his remorse, his regret, and his successful efforts to turn over a new leaf. Why do we still persist in condemning him to death?
Interestingly, I first heard of this book when I was given an opportunity to look through the book list for the Singapore American School curriculum. Students (I forget which grade) are required to read this book as part of their classes, and to discuss the issues raised in class. I only wish that such discussions could take place in the local schools as well. The longer Singapore clings on to the death penalty, the more we need debate and discussion on the issue in our classrooms.
In this blog entry I am not urging you to join any anti-death penalty campaign. I am not requiring you to agree with every single thing I say, or have said.
I am only asking that you read this book. Read it, ponder it, then make your decision.
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When I called, both Books Kinokuniya and PageOne said that they did not carry this book. However, I understand there are a few copies available from the National Library (check the website here to find out which branches have the book).
The book is also available from Amazon as well as GoodBooksNZ. (All proceeds from the sale of books at GoodBooksNZ goes to Oxfam, and international shipping is free.)
Rin
October 5, 2010
People always say if you can bend the law anyway you want it then the justice system will crumble.But I feel that laws are made by people in the first place.It’s used to keep people in line.But like everything in the world,there’s no clear black and white for every single situation.We’re never poor and desperate before.We’ve always had our parents supporting us.We have decent homes,we have education.The point is,we’ll never be able to feel what these people had felt and would never understand why they would have done certain things since our privilege from birth blinded us from many woes people are facing.To use laws that are written by the upper social class against crimes of the lower class is an unfair system.Even after saying so much,people would say the law is the law,you have to face the consequences of your actions.Easier said than done when they’ve not raised any child,lost a child or lost anyone who’s so close to them due to uncontrollable circumstances.All in all,I believe it’s so damn difficult for others to give Vui Kong a second chance because he’s tried in a country and a society where people are too privileged from birth and people encountered too little social problems to appreciate his current situation.Just a thought.
Eh I wanna read tt book leh,you quite good at marketing ah,hahahahah!!
Kirsten
October 5, 2010
Haha yes read the book! When I started I couldn’t put it down, and after I finished I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The voices of the inmates were so strong and clear and it’s really hard to believe while you’re reading their stories that you’re part of a society that wants to end the lives of these people. Even though I’m not part of the American society that condemned these boys to death row I cannot feel removed because I am still part of a society that has the death penalty.
For the death penalty to really serve justice, the system needs to be PERFECT. And not just perfect, but undisputedly, without a doubt 110% perfect. Flawless. Every single person we condemn to death must REALLY be incorrigible, heartless, cruel, psychopathic, sociopathic monsters who if allowed to live will kill and kill and kill again, FOR SURE. However, it is impossible to ever have that sort of certainty that the person we are killing is really completely bad through and through, and totally incapable for changing or redeeming themselves. When we send someone to death row, there is always a chance that there has been a miscarriage of justice. And even one mistake is one mistake too many.
Both No Choirboy and Alan Shadrake’s book Once A Jolly Hangman show us that the system isn’t perfect. Not in America, and not in Singapore. They don’t even need to prove any gross miscarriage of justice; as long as there is a seed of doubt in the system we cannot allow for the death penalty, because it is irreversible. If you wrongly sent someone to prison, the case could still be reopened and the person acquitted and released. But once you’ve killed someone, a posthumous acquittal is nothing except pain for the family.
Victoria Graves
September 21, 2011
I absolutly love this book(: