Washoe County Library System

"In America, when the state seeks to execute people judged guilty of heinous crimes, the condemned must be put to death humanely, with as little pain as possible. As the Supreme Court has decreed, when the state kills, its executions should involve no more than 'the mere extinguishment of life.' So what happens when executions go wrong? Gruesome Spectacles : Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty uncovers the history of botched, mismanaged,...

"Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill." --container

"An elite police squad hunts a manipulative mastermind out to publically execute criminals the law cannot reach. A wild thriller and deadly game of cat-and-mouse from one of China's most popular authors. For fans of Jo Nesbo, Se7en, and Hong Kong police cinema. The brutal murder of respected police officer Sergeant Zheng Haoming sends shockwaves through Chengdu, a modern metropolis in the heart of China's stunning Sichuan Province. He had been obsessed...

Jack Swyteck, a brilliant Miami defense attorney has spent years rebelling against his father, Harry, now Florida's governor. Their estrangement seems complete when Harry allows one of Jack's clients — a man Jack believes is innocent — to die in the electric chair.

But when a psychopath bent on serving his own twisted version of justice places both Jack and Harry in extreme jeopardy, the two have nowhere to turn but to each other.

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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are Cold War iconic symbols and their trial and execution embody the hysteria fueled by the McCarthy's red scare. But who were the Rosenberg's as people? Listen to staunch Rosenberg comrades and hear the intimate interviews with the filmmaker's father, Michael Meeropol, who brings an immediacy to his parents' story. This painful revelation eerily underscores the depth of political paranoia of the time and the impossibility...

1662. Alpine village hangman Jakob Kuisl receives a letter from his sister calling him to the imperial city of Regensburg, where a gruesome sight awaits him: her throat has been slit. Arrested and framed for the murder, Kuisl faces first-hand the torture he's administered himself for years. Jakob's daughter, Magdalena, and a young medicus named Simon hasten to his aid. With the help of an underground network of beggars, a beer-brewing monk, and an...

"1855, New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt is set to hang for a double murder. Murderess or victim? Only Lucy knows the truth. In the shadow of the gallows, Lucy reflects on the events that led to her bitter downfall--from the moment she arrived at the rambling Burton mansion looking for work and a better life to the grisly murders themselves. In a mysterious household of locked doors and forbidden affections, Lucy slips comfortably into the shadows, where...

Part biography, part political thriller, part scholarly detective story that draws on letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, and other documents, this true story chronicles the life and brutal death of Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany.