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A review by landturn
Summoned at Midnight: A Story of Race and the Last Military Executions at Fort Leavenworth by Richard A. Serrano
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Summoned at Midnight is a kind of posthumous cause célèbre for private John Bennett and criminal justice reform.
And rightly so.
For indigent soldiers, both Black and White, response to a death sentence and life on death row were at times bizarre. A fellow private, Thomas Edwards, broke the mold of naiveté among condemned Black soldiers, rejecting the defense attorney appointed to him. He best articulated the racialized injustice inherent to the court-martial, and I'd read his letters to Eisenhower in their entirety.
For Summoned at Midnight to be historical nonfiction, the last chapters were suspenseful. I had no idea how it would end.
https://landturn.com/reviews/summoned-at-midnight-richard-a-serrano
And rightly so.
For indigent soldiers, both Black and White, response to a death sentence and life on death row were at times bizarre. A fellow private, Thomas Edwards, broke the mold of naiveté among condemned Black soldiers, rejecting the defense attorney appointed to him. He best articulated the racialized injustice inherent to the court-martial, and I'd read his letters to Eisenhower in their entirety.
For Summoned at Midnight to be historical nonfiction, the last chapters were suspenseful. I had no idea how it would end.
https://landturn.com/reviews/summoned-at-midnight-richard-a-serrano