![Sydney Writers' Festival show](https://d3dthqtvwic6y7.cloudfront.net/podcast-covers/000/070/836/small/sydney-writers-festival.jpg)
Summary: Capital punishment falls disproportionately on the shoulders of the poor, the illiterate and the mentally ill. It was used on women, before women could vote. It has been used on children so small they had to sit on a Bible as a booster seat in the electric chair. Award-winning journalist Caroline Overington argues that capital punishment doesn’t deter crime. Worse, it makes barbarians of us all.