Journalist Gianna Toboni discusses The Volunteer
Take a listen to the latest episode of my podcast - On Topic, Off Script 🎙️ 🎧
I sat down with investigative journalist Gianna Toboni.
~In the clip below, she discusses what she learned from the experience of meeting death row inmate Scott Dozier, telling his story, and writing this book.~
Gianna - a two-time Emmy winner -- discusses her new book, The Volunteer: The Failure of the Death Penalty in America, and One Inmate’s Quest to Die with Dignity' (via Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster).
The book stems from her reporting for Vice News, when she met Scott Dozier, a man who was sent to death row in Nevada back in 2007, convicted of two murders. Dozier’s life story is a complex one full of twists and turns. The path to writing this book began in 2017, when Gianna wrote Dozier a letter in the hopes of securing an interview before his scheduled execution date. Dozier’s execution was stayed at the last minute, and from there, the two formed a connection between reporter and subject. She became his confidante while he advocated for his own execution. Gianna sets the fraught ups and downs of Dozier’s life against the backdrop of this nation’s flawed capital punishment system. The book is riveting and it forces you to confront the realities of just how embedded the death penalty is in America’s psyche.
We chatted about The Volunteer, how her reporting on Scott Dozier led to this book, and the state of capital punishment today.
You can listen to the episode at the links below on Spotify, Apple, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.