Ghosts Over the Boiler - by Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (Paperback)

About the Book

An anthology of writing from a self-advocacy group working toward the abolition of the death penalty in Alabama and the nation

Book Synopsis

From a donated typewriter that frequently breaks down, people on Alabama's death row have literally cut and pasted together a newsletter, On Wings of Hope, for the last three decades to educate the public about the death penalty. This newsletter, a labor of love, documents decades of work, wisdom, activism, and lived experience of those who have been executed, or are scheduled to be executed, by the state of Alabama. The writings also chart the changing policy and practice of capital punishment in the state that sentences more people to death per capita than any other in the US.

Ghosts Over the Boiler is a curated collection of poetry, visual art, photographs, essays, creative writings, and other archival materials that have emerged from Alabama's death row from the organization Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (PHADP). This group was founded at Holman Correctional Facility and has been operating autonomously since 1989 toward its mission to abolish the death penalty in Alabama and in the nation.

Review Quotes

"This most necessary book, Ghost Over the Boiler: Voices from Alabama's Death Row, contextualizes and places into historical context the work the organization Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty has done, and its evolution to expose and bring to the forefront the inhumanity that occurs within taking a life on death row. The amplification of voices from within the carceral state of Alabama in this archive of past writings are at once chilling, and yet--eye-opening. This living document that breathes from the blood of the dead and those soon to be gone, if one reads it carefully, reflects a judicial system that bases its morals or morality at the expense of humans. These human beings are and have been entangled in a carceral state in which checks and balances never favor the convicted, and the pathway to redemption and forgiveness often does not exist. It reminds me of the hypocrisy of change and forgiveness, and how killing a person eliminates any chance of either. Ghosts Over the Boiler may or may not change your position on the death penalty, but it will make you rethink everything you thought you knew in the taking of a life."
--Randall Horton, author of {#289-128}: Poems, winner of the American Book Award

"[Ghosts Over the Boiler] helps put a human face on capital punishment. This book traces the development of the death penalty abolition movement, the history of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, and the evolution of the capital punishment system in Alabama since 1989."
--Andrew Baer, author of Beyond the Usual Beating: The Jon Burge Police Torture Scandal and Social Movements for Police Accountability in Chicago

"This collection is one of the most important archives of the modern US death penalty, giving voice to the brilliant and dedicated men on Alabama's death row--to their essays, editorials, and poems; to their interviews, scanned documents, and letters; to their photographs, remembrances, and reflections. Beautifully and faithfully curated by Katie Owens-Murphy, this archive is a glorious tribute to the human spirit."
--Bernard E. Harcourt, author of Critique and Praxis

About the Author

Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty is the nation's only 501c3 founded and run by people on death row. They have published the newsletter "On Wings of Hope" for more than thirty years.

Katie Owens-Murphy is an associate professor of English at the University of North Alabama and state coordinator for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program.