What a wonderful essay collection. I appreciated the insight into what actually happens during executions, and exploring the philosophy of the death penalty.

On human slaughter is a book of essays done by Elizabeth Brunic on her anti-death penalty stance. In the book we here from a man who depending on the day you catch him believes and wants the death penalty the government promised and let me just say this man went to jail for raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter and was released from jail after promising to kill Kim his wife who put them there and then Swickley going to her house kicking down the door and holding his son his wife who was shot from the bullet wound he put in her stomach and then raped his daughter in front of his son and dying wife been during negotiations taunted his father-in-law about all that he had done. So yes I can see why she is anti-death penalty because why would we as humans want to lose such a stellar guy. She also brings up botched attempts at pudding these guys to death and I totally get it this may be an antiquated way to deal with people who cannot live in our society because they cannot follow the rules but the only other option is to support these people and give them what they didn’t get their victims in that’s more years to laugh live watch TV make memories and all funded by the government. I know when trying to build a case you always parade the worst consequence of the one thing you’re trying to stop and although I may not be against the death penalty still can honestly say miss brunic State Tur case playing late and shows the good the bad and the ugly I really love the way she does her due diligence and tells a well-rounded respectful story and I don’t have to agree with her to totally recommend this book it is interesting and well thought out and well put together it is a solid four-star read i’m sure the worst botched State sanctioned death
Was probably still a walk in the park compared to what the things these guys put their victims through no one is given the death penalty for jaywalking. I still really enjoyed this book and found it as I said very interesting I want to think the author and net galley for my free art copy please forgive any mistakes I am blind and dictate my review.

i am extremely anti death penalty and i love elizabeth bruenig's writing, and these empathetic, touching, unflinching essays made both feelings intensify.

This is a collection of essays written for The Atlantic on the subject of capital punishment in America. Bruenig delivers captivating discourse on the philosophy, efficacy, and morality of the death penalty and how it is carried out. The author's attention is primarily focused on Alabama and its three botched executions in 2022, as well as the future of the practice in that state and beyond. I found several of these essays to be thought-provoking and profound. The subject of executions is a passionate one, yet shrouded in a lot of secrecy and avoidance. By providing firsthand accounts of witnessing executions, Bruenig explores the sketchy line between justice and retribution. This book is not about forgiveness or to glorify the sins of man. It asks questions that challenge our understanding of humanity and how we seek to "improve" life through death.

This collection of essays from <i>The Atlantic</i> explores capital punishment. This collection takes aim at the death penalty not just as a concept, but also as a technical process that governments continually fail at.

Is it cruel and unusual to stick someone a hundred times in search of a vein? To cut down their skin in further search of a vein? To leave someone strapped to a gurney for hours when they’ve actually had their execution stayed? Though graphic at times, it is never gratuitous, and really — what would you expect from a collection titled <i>On Human Slaughter</i>?

These works are all very current and spend much time in Alabama. While the time and state have certainly earned examination, I believe the collection as a whole would be better served with a wider view and more context. It’s quick, insightful, and thought-provoking. For fans of true crime and moral debates, but not for the faint of heart.

A hard-hitting selection of excellent journalism and commentary on the death penalty in America. Morally challenging for any reader.

A fantastic addition to this series of atlantic editions, this book focuses on the banality of evil. A sample of some of the best writing in the Atlantic.

Did not finish. After reading two other books in the series, I found myself quite bored with the concept of collecting short articles & compiling them without any context or expansion.

The death penalty has been carried out in the US for as long as the US has been around—just over half the states still allow it, and some of those states are doing their damndest to carry it out. But state-sanctioned killing has gotten more difficult to, uh, execute successfully—companies that produce the drugs that are used in lethal injection are loathe to sell them for those purposes, other methods (firing squad, electric chair) have fallen out of favor, largely due to the optics, and...well. Even when the state has lethal drugs on hand, as Bruenig chronicles, things do not always go to plan.

Bruenig is a journalist who has written extensively about the death penalty, and "On Human Slaughter" is a compilation of articles she wrote on the topic in 2022. As you can guess from the title, she does not pretend neutrality—she's clear in her stance that, separate from whether the death penalty is humane (I'm going to go with no), the way in which it is carried out in the US is often, in direct defiance of the 8th Amendment, inhumane: workers fumbling for hours to insert needles into veins; workers performing cutdowns, probably without anaesthetic, when that fails; prisoners convulsing as drugs flow into their bodies; shrouds of secrecy and lack of accountability because nobody in the system wants to admit that what they consider "standard procedure" is either not standard at all or, if it *is* standard procedure, making a mockery of basic ethics and humanity. And then there are the things less talked about: that the family of the accused is often treated as guilty by association; that when somebody is put to death, chances are that other innocent people are losing a father or brother or son (it's almost always men on death row) as well; that many of the people sentenced to death have backgrounds that indicate that they never really had a chance in life to begin with.

I'll note that I prefer that Bruenig is clear in her stance—while I'm willing to read a well-researched, well-thought-out take in favor of the death penalty (if someone can explain how the death penalty in the US can ever be ethical when it is so unevenly applied across race and class, I'll read it, but I'm not going to hold my breath), the last book I read on the death penalty was not nearly as impartial as the author seemed to think, and I'd rather know where the author is coming in. I don't think her writing will change any fervently pro-death-penalty minds, but if it's something you've never really thought about, it's likely to be an eye-opening read.

There is a caveat, though: "On Human Slaughter" is outdated even before its publication date. The articles are, as far as I can tell, presented exactly as they were published in the first place, with no updates of language or information. Sometimes this is little things ("Last year", "Last Thursday", "In April of this year"), but sometimes it's bigger things: "The trial [Glossip v. Gross] wrapped up earlier this month; a decision is expected as soon as mid-May, and the defense attorneys are hopeful" (loc. 284); "When, as I expect, the jury in Florida decides to put Cruz to death" (loc. 371)...these are two of several instances where we're left hanging because something that has since been decided had not been decided at the time of writing. In the latter case, Bruenig comes back to it in a later article, but in the former, that's the end of Glossip and the constitutionality of midazolam. I can (and did) look up the results of these things, and I got over the cognitive disconnect eventually (call me slow, but it took a while); still, I found myself wishing that slight revisions had been made (e.g., instead of "Last year", we might have "In 2021"; "In April of this year" could be "In April of 2022") and/or that bracketed notes or endnotes had been included in chapters where there have been updates since the writing. I'd also hope (not sure how realistic this is) for a foreword and/or afterword from the author—something that speaks more generally of this, outside the time-sensitive context of these articles.

Overall, not a read for the faint of heart (and time sensitivity is frustrating), but I'm very glad we have writers as incisive as Bruenig willing to tackle the subject in so much depth.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley. Quotes are taken from an ARC and may not be final.

I devoured this collection of work on capital punishment. As an attorney, I appreciated some of the more in depth dives into the legal system and processes surrounding capital sentencing while also recognizing the Bruenig made it as accessible as possible to non-legalase speakers. The work as a whole did an excellent job of showing offenders’ humanity without discounting the harm they caused; the very point in the discomfort caused through reading is to consider how we as a society treat those most vulnerable and how we allow state-sanctioned killings. Incredible piece that I’ll be thinking about for awhile.