title: A Dream of a Tattered Man : Stories from Georgia's Death Row
author:  Randolph Loney 
description: According to the author of this well-written, well-reasoned, and often poignant work, African American males from emotionally, economically, and socially impoverished backgrounds whose barely concealed rage has exploded in aggression toward whites are the most likely victims of society's ultimate revenge, the death penalty. Loney, a pastor at the Glad River Congregation, has been a regular visitor to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where he has befriended and counseled death-row inmates for over 15 years. He reflects on and references the "sometimes contradictory voices" of broad intellectual and spiritual sources, and his mission has been to help, offer friendship to, and guide these incarcerated men (and their families) to peace, understanding, and love within their troubled lives. Loney focuses on the insidious roles of childhood trauma, isolation, racism, and hate and the potentially redemptive influences of love and relationship in the lives of seven black men sentenced to die in the prison's electric chair. His message is highly recommended for thoughtful attention by a large reading public. Suzanne W. Wood, formerly with SUNY Coll. of Technology at Alfred <br />Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  Prologue
  
  
  Wounds. They remain as scars.
  
  
  Always there. Reminders.
  
  
  
  
  
  “What’s your emergency?”
  
  
  “I killed a man.”
  
  
  “Where?”
  
  
  “In his house.”
  
  
  “Sir, where is that?”
  
  
  “In his street.”
  
  
  “What’s your name, sir?”
  
  
  “Fuck off.”
  
  
  T slammed the phone down, laughing his damn head off. What a bloody rush.
  
  
  Leaning over the waist-height wall beside the river, he let go of the mobile,
  the plop of it hitting the murky water satisfying, just like it had been when
  he’d dropped the other thing in five minutes ago. Then he got in his van and
  sped off along the city streets, giggling, a thread of euphoria streaking
  through his body. Life was good, wasn’t it, when you decided to bump off all
  the people who’d pissed you off, hurt you, hurt your sister?
  
  
  Yeah, it was good all right.
  
  
  Georgia would be home off the night shift in a few hours. She’d find that dead
  bastard and crap her knickers. What he’d give to see her face when she spotted
  Jason, lying there like he was.