William S. McFeeley has written a deeply personal exploration of capital punishment, PROXIMITY TO DEATH (published by Norton).

McFeeley gives a vivid account of several cases, men who faced the death penalty, or as one attorney aptly describes it, "state murders." A professor at the University of Georgia, McFeeley chronicles the racism and class distinctions that determine who the state executes and who is spared. There are few rich people on Death Row.

A team of lawyers dedicated to justice lead the battle, fighting the tide and the public's hunger for vengeance. Stephen Bright heads a battery of lawyers in behalf of the convicted William Brooks. The background of lawyers, victims, prosecutors, jurors and defendants are presented, giving a broad picture of the system at work.

As in all aspects of the criminal justice system, revenge and machismo posturing pass for a system. Institutional racism permeates the area, and those crying for state murders use the tragic circumstances of victims and their families to justify the cry for death. An eye for an eye prevails, and as Dr. King once said: "At the rate we are going, we'll have a nation of blind people."

There are multitudes of unsung heroes and heroines scattered around the country, pockets of civility and decency, like the small group of attorneys we meet in the book PROXIMITY OF DEATH.

But unstated is the reality that our law schools are not committed to the battle for our most disenfranchised citizens, and the criminal justice system is infected with a long history of racism and ugly ambition.

Jerry Miller, the founder and director of the Center for Institutional Alternatives, once noted that "the system must work for the most unwanted and difficult of persons accused and convicted. If we begin to compromise, it works its way up the system."

While McFeeley provides some hope in PROXIMITY TO DEATH, the total picture is not bright. All you have do is see how New York State has obliterated the Prisoner Legal services, and how the current Supreme Court regards inmates seeking recourse. More recognizable is the inability to provide sufficient money for public schools, while government funds are in ample supply for lock-ups.

Money, class and race affect who we punish and the severity of punishment. That is all apparent in Mr. McFeeley's PROXIMITY TO DEATH.