Corinna Barrett Lain - "Secrets of the Killing State" - Shannon Heffernan

Lethal injection is nothing like what you think. This is its untold story.

Corinna Barrett Lain will discuss Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection. She will be joined in conversation by Shannon Heffernan. A Q&A and signing will follow. 

At the Co-op

RSVP Here (Please note your RSVP is requested, but not required)

About the Book: Secrets of the Killing State pulls back the curtain of secrecy, using shocking revelations about lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly. In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it is the most “humane” form of capital punishment. In reality, not one of those things is true. 

We are now over 45 years into the lethal injection era, and most Americans still have no idea what states are doing in their name. It’s time they found out.

About the Author: Corinna Barrett Lain is the S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. She is a legal historian and one of the nation’s leading authorities on the death penalty generally, and lethal injection in particular. Professor Lain's work has appeared in the most prestigious law journals in the nation, and has been cited by the Supreme Court as well as numerous other courts. Professor Lain is an Army veteran, former prosecutor, and recipient of the University of Richmond’s Distinguished Educator Award, the highest award that the University bestows.

About the Interlocutor: Shannon Heffernan is a staff writer for The Marshall Project covering prisons and jails. Heffernan recently joined the Marshall Project after 15 years as a public radio reporter, for WBEZ examining issues such as prisons, policing, poverty and the environment. During her tenure at WBEZ, she was the lead reporter and host of Season Four of WBEZ’s “Motive,” a podcast investigating abuse and corruption in small town prisons in Illinois and a co-reporter on "16 Shots, the police killing of Laquan Mcdonald". Her work has been honored with a National Murrow Award for best writing and a National Headliner Award, among many others. She also writes short fiction and has been published Hobart, The Indiana Review and The Columbia Review, where she won the 2016 prize for fiction.