No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row

Regarding serious crimes involving more than one suspect, Stevenson notes that the police often offer a deal to the first person willing to talk. Discuss how this procedural expediency can lead to miscarriages of justice.

Licia Hedian says that society is to blame for the actions of the teenaged accomplices of her son’s killer. Come up with three instances of how social services might have failed some of the youths Kuklin profiles (Roy, Mark, Nanon, Napoleon), contributing to their troubled lives and their crimes.

The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution forbids the imposition of “cruel and unusual punishments.” What instances of prison life, as described in Kuklin’s book, may fit this description, and why?

Roy says he preferred his time on death row to living within the general prison population. Nanon, who was incarcerated in Texas, had a different view. Discuss the differences and similarities of their respective experiences of death row.

The author never shares her personal views on capital punishment with the reader. Explain, with examples, how she is nevertheless able to make an argument against it in her book.

According to the prisoners and others interviewed by Kuklin for No Choirboy, some positive things emerged from the tragedies she describes. Discuss three of these.

One role of the Supreme Court is to provide uniform rules for the states, eliminating arbitrary differences (e.g., regarding law enforcement). Discuss two or three differences, mentioned in this book, between different states’ treatment of prisoners.

Paul and Mary Jenkins agree, “We’re not private with our feelings, but we’re private with our grief” (174). What do they mean by this? How was their grief, and the way they coped with it, different from that of other interviewees (e.g., their parents or the Beazleys)? Discuss how the loss of their brother changed the dynamics of their family.