Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
David R. Dow is the Cullen Professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the Rorschach Visiting Professor of History at Rice University. A graduate of Rice and Yale, Dow's areas of expertise include constitutional law and theory, contract law, and death penalty law. Working with students in his death penalty clinic, Dow has represented more than one hundred death-row inmates during their state and federal appeals. He is also the founder and director of the Texas Innocence Network.
He lives in Houston and Park City, Utah, with his wife, Katya, their son, Lincoln, and their dogs, Delano and Soul.
This bio was last updated on 04/03/2019. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
You are a lawyer working on death row inmate appeals. How do you do continue to invest your all in your job knowing that, often times, the outcome will be devastating?
Given that I get this question a lot, you might suppose I have a well-rehearsed answer, but I don't, because I don't really know what the answer is. Often I think what drives me to continue
is the belief that our legal or moral position is so strong, that we will in fact win. Sometimes, I continue because I focus on cases where we did win. (In this context, "win" typically means that
a death row inmate has his death sentence set aside, and he is removed from death row and sent to the general prison population.) Maybe you'll just win one time out of twenty, but that one win saves a human life. Other times, and probably most frequently, I realize intellectually (even if I don't say it out loud), that the fight is close to hopeless, but my team and I still believe our client is entitled to the most vigorous defense we can mount (and 99 times out of a hundred, even after we lose, and our client is with minutes of being executed, he tells me thank you in our final
conversation—not because we won, because we didn't, but because we tried).
I should add one ...
Steve Cavanagh is an Irish author from Belfast and at the age eighteen he studied law by mistake. He is now the international award-winning author of the Eddie Flynn novels. His debut novel, The Defense, was nominated for the... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Confessions of an Innocent Man
Try:
The Plea
by Steve Cavanagh
Emma Flint was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England. She studied English and History at the University of St Andrews and is a graduate of the Faber Academy writing program in London. Since her childhood, Flint has... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Confessions of an Innocent Man
Try:
Little Deaths
by Emma Flint
We recommend 7 similar authors
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
