Attorney Marc Bookman, a Lower Merion native who dedicated his career to fighting the death penalty, has published a new book that reveals the atrocities of death row through essays, writes Robert Huber for Philadelphia Magazine.

A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays was published last month by The New Press. It collects Bookman’s stories detailing the broken system and criminal justice abuses of defendants who are on trial for their lives.

However the author is quick to emphasize that the cases in the book are not outliers, but the rule.

Bookman began his crusade against the death penalty in the Defenders Association of Philadelphia, which he followed by running the nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital Representation.

He writes about Philadelphia as a petri dish for death-penalty issues.

“We’ve had a series of very aggressive prosecutors until Larry Krasner became DA – a real series of self-aggrandizing prosecutors who were promoting themselves on the backs of poor people,” he said. “And then you’ve got this defense bar that’s being paid practically nothing. So that’s a kind of desperate situation.”

Read more about Marc Bookman in the Philadelphia Magazine.