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This series consists of published copy, reprints, and drafts of articles about criminal justice and capital punishment by other authors which Watt Espy collected. Authors include scholars Michael Radelet, Hugo Bedeau, and Victor Streib. The archivists kept articles written by others and sent as part of correspondence to Espy with the original letters in Series 5: Correspondence.

July 1995 article in Iowa Law Review a,d 1996 Larry Kramer book: Reforming the Civil Justice System

Watt Espy amassed materials related to a variety of organizations advocating against capital punishment, for better prison conditions, for human rights, and for an improved and unbiased criminal justice system. The groups vary and may be secular or religious, national, statewide or local. Materials in this series include newsletters, execution alerts, appeals, meeting minutes, and brochures. In some instances, it is possible to determine that Espy was active within or supported a particular organization as his name appears in meeting minutes or related papers.

This is an alphabetical letter series of the General Reference collection. The General Reference Collection was created by archivists to hold information on campus history that is not part of any organic record group. The collection contains material from a variety of outside sources, excepts from newspapers and other publications, press releases and promotional materials, and loose university records.

For over thirty years, Watt Espy assembled true crime, penitentiary, detective, western U.S. life and culture, and legal publications containing articles about capital crimes, executions, and criminal profiles. The publications date from the 1930s into the 21st Century. While some present straightforward non-fiction explanations of crimes, others feature more sensational accounts with lurid depictions. Of interest are 30 issues of the award-winning , a newsmagazine written by prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. This series also includes more than a half dozen Death Row annuals, featuring profiles and photographs of condemned prisoners, and a set of serial killer, mass murderer and gangster trading cards. Please note that Espy personally bound the publications in boxes 88-90, but did not include all issues for each year in the bound volume. Therefore some publications have both bound and unbound issues.

This is an alphabetical letter series of the General Reference collection. The General Reference Collection was created by archivists to hold information on campus history that is not part of any organic record group. The collection contains material from a variety of outside sources, excepts from newspapers and other publications, press releases and promotional materials, and loose university records.