The author spent his career in prison administration, fully convinced of the need for capital punishment. Not until he was confronted with supervising and carrying out the death sentence did he begin to question the process in earnest. The eventuality of carrying out the death penalty was a disturbing and continual presence in his life and work. Giving the order to execute someone he believed was a reformed man finally led him to adopt an abolitionist stance. This book is an insider's look at the death penalty process, and the toll it exacts on those who must carry it out. The story also relates how friendship developed between the author, a middle-aged white prison warden, and a young black man sentenced to die. It describes the last two weeks in the prisoner's life and the same two weeks in the lives of the prison staff preparing to execute him. The author provides insight into prison life and illuminates significant changes and reforms that have occurred over the last two decades. Index