Death On Hold

I am always hesitant to write anything around the death penalty.  I have noticed people's passions are such that they begin to go overboard in arguing their point.  I wrote about this topic and my wrestling with it way back in 2008 http://apperson.blogspot.ca/2008/11/wrestling-with-word.html and though the comments on this blog were not too over the top...I received tons of emails about it and even had people stop talking to me for a season.  I was fairly raked over the coals.

So at first I was unsure if I wanted to review Death on Hold by Burt and Anita Folsom.

This is the story of Mitch Rutledge, a man on death row with an IQ of 84.  He admitted his crime and was sentenced to death.  He also said he was sorry for what he did. A story in time magazine about people on death row addressed the life of Rutledge and the last line of the story said, "Forget him."

The Folsoms and a few others could do no such thing.  They began a correspondance with Mitch Rutledge that has continued on for 30+ years now.  Rutledge had his sentence upheld once, then saw it later reduced to life without parole.  He still sits in prison today.

He is not the same man he once was though.  With the support of his new "family" and a faith in Christ, Mitch learned to read and write, received his GED and later took college courses.  He became a model prisoner and has appeared in videos and given lectures to groups brought to the prison about the dangers of poor choices.

Mitch had a hard life before his crime but owns the fact that he also made por choices.  The take away from this book is that ALL lives matter, even a teenage murderer with an IQ of 84!  This is the story of how God can redeem ANY life.  It doesn't matter if you are for or against the death penalty, you should read this book and see how God can transform lives.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers http://booklookbloggers.com; book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.