A Death Row Inmate’s Story

 Review by Ronica Wahi

 

Death Sentences

By Michael Zimecki

First published: May 11, 2014, Crime Wave Press.

Kindle Edition Pages: 215. 

ASIN: B00KALIXVW

Death Sentences by Michael Zimecki was published in 2014; it is not late though to be writing a review on this one. For it is relevant still. It is the story of Peter Popovich, or “Pop” as he is mostly referred to, who is on Death Row.

The narrative shifts between first and third person accounts as Pop directly addresses the reader and shows the manuscript he’s working on wherein he reveals the story of his life, respectively. Pop decided to tell his story for, as he says, the TV news didn’t cover most of what happened in the US – and as first person narrator, said of Pop, “I am writing this book in honor of his crimes.” This referring to self in the third person – something he had learnt as a recruit at Boot Camp – was a habit that “stuck with him”, as he reveals. This boot camp was also where he received something he enjoyed: weapons training.

The experiences of Pop – both outside and inside the prison – are not singular. In fact, they are reflective of certain ugly dimensions of American reality, reflective of what has been and is the fate of many in the land. And this justifies the plural in the title Death Sentences. Michael Zimecki, who has a wide-ranging experience of work and life, is an attorney presently; and reveals much about the gun culture, laws, court cases, and changes to laws in America. Zimecki, in fact, has based Death Sentences on a real-life incident.

The book does not progress chronologically. Moving through different time frames, and switching between Pop’s life inside and outside of the prison, it brings to light many wrongs that Pop suffered. Pop began to pen his story while awaiting his execution; this waiting period was nightmarish with the confinement and the repeated instances of humiliation. Pop informs the reader how the waiting periods for execution are so long that most such convicts die of natural causes, and how the torturous time for those in solitary confinement causes or worsens mental problems. The conditions inside prisons and jails are such that the suicide rate inside these is as much as nine times higher than that outside, he tells further.

Not that Pop’s life outside had been good. That life indeed culminated in the crime that put him on death row. His life had been one of wanting, disappointments, frustrations, and injustice. His personal life was in a sorry state – security and love that each deserves were inadequate, an able mentor was missing, and his love life got ruined. He was unable to gain stable employment. At one particularly challenging point personally, jobless and also ineligible for unemployment compensation, he survived on minimal assistance from Welfare. Repeated disappointments and failures ensured that his dissatisfaction with his life and the society he inhabited remained on an upward incline.

The “politicization” of Pop started early in his life. Among factors that influenced his thought processes and perspectives were the books he chose to read and the people he interacted with. He developed many resentments and ill feelings; he became convinced that the little liberty he had over his life would also be snatched away. His grandfather passed on his discriminatory viewpoints to him and his friend KG too held similar perspectives. Unfortunately, the level of discriminatory attitude towards and disrespect for whoever was not a white American heterosexual male that Pop developed and displayed make him unlikable. Thus, the empathy that the reader could have otherwise felt for Pop is compromised. Had he not been unlikable, his story would have left a deeper impact.

The book is well-researched and well-written. The style of writing, in a way, reflects the dullness of the life that is presented, but it seems to be dragging much in some parts, which might get a trifle boring. And there are typos and missing words at quite a number of places.

Overall though, in terms of craft and purpose, it’s a good piece of work. 

 

Amazon India link for Death Sentences (Kindle): https://amzn.to/3FwIe0d 

 

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