Death Row, USA used to be a sleepy place, a limbo of inertia and legal wrangling that could stretch a death sentence out longer than a human life span. Yes, one could commit a heinous crime and be sentenced to die following the Supreme Court's reinstatement of the ultimate penalty in 1976. But the real chances of visiting the electric chair seemed remote. Court appeals alone could take 20 to 30 years.

Life on Death Row meant little more than better accommodations in a slightly better prison. From 1977 to 1982, only six people were executed in the US. The pace picked up after that; 11 people executed in 1988, 14 in 1991. But hold on. By 1997, 74 people were executed in the US. That, however, is nothing compared to the opening months of 1999. So far, 18 people have been put to death. If that pace continues, more people will die this year in America's gas chambers and electric chairs, or by lethal injections, than ever before in US history.

Perhaps you are thinking now this is will be a story about the horrors of the US's death penalty; or perhaps a tale of its inequity, the way in which it is administered disproportionately to minorities. Or maybe you think this will be about the world's reaction to a rather barbaric practice in a developed country, or the calls of foreign governments for the US to cease the practice, or the routine, 11th-hour pleas of the Pope which so often attract attention to an inmate's latch-ditch effort to stay alive.

Sorry. This is not a story about any of those things. This instead is a story of good old capitalism and consumerism in its most unadulterated form. This is a story that could be in the business pages, a story about entrepreneurism, good management, savvy marketing, slick timing, and a chirpy willingness to meet consumer demand with a quality product.

This is a story about Death Row magazine, an annual book that is becoming an American publishing success story. Or, as editor Bobbi Bobit puts it in her introduction to the 1998 edition . . . "If consumer interest continues to climb, don't be surprised if our next edition also becomes the leading coffee-table book in America."

The magazine began eight years ago as a small, promotional bonus for subscribers to Police magazine, a publication whose readership is self-explanatory. The company that owned Death Row sold it, along with a number of other titles, to Bobit Publishing nearly three years ago. Bobit, a small Californian publishing company founded 38 years ago, prints such showstoppers as Nails, for the nail-salon industry, and Auto Rental News. It had no idea what to do with this odd step-child.

"It was kind of a joke around the office," says Bonnie Bobit, the 42-year-old editor of Death Row and daughter of the company founder. "I begged my father to keep Death Row alive," she says in a serious tone. "It was losing money, but I just knew it had commercial appeal."

Give the woman credit for trend-spotting. The 1998 edition, shown left, features a four-colour cover showing a hand holding a syringe. The cover line notes the magazine features a Roster of 3,392 Death Row Inmates, and also flags a Special Report: Don't Mess With Texas.

Indeed, after reading the report on Texas, one would be reluctant to make an illegal right-turn; since 1976, about third of the US's 518 executions have occurred in Huntsville alone, a town proud of its prominence. The book is filled with statistics, graphs and charts. It contains information about executions that most Americans don't even know. For example, the states of Delaware and Washington have killed three people by hanging; Utah has killed two people by firing squad; the gas chamber and electrocution are still reliable standbys (although Florida has had some difficulties with a faulty chair that has malfunctioned a few times . . . don't ask). But lethal injection is by far the most popular and most requested way to die at the hands of the state.

But of course, as politicians often note, statistics never tell the real story. For that, one must look deep into the eyes of real people, and Death Row magazine is no slouch in this area. Some 100 of its pages feature photographs and what Bobit calls "vignettes" of each inmate on Death Row. These vignettes describe the murders for which the inmates were convicted. There are discussions of the usual . . . multiple stabbings with letter openers, claw hammers, rapes and drownings and necrophilia, kidnappings and shootings, bodies stuffed in car boots and rivers and ditches. "I get some pretty ugly email," says Bobit. "But business is great. The rate of executions is astounding. If this pace continues, it will be a record year."

And as word of Death Row spreads, its readership has extended beyond its initial base of 5,000 readers, mostly law enforcement officers, prison officials and journalists. For the 1999 edition, which will be out in September, Bobit is about to sign a distribution agreement with a company that will print as many as 30,000 copies, and will offer them for sale at $24.95 each in bookstores and on the Internet. But there's more. Bobit is now host of a radio show syndicated in 30 cities and a television production company wants to do a show based on the magazine.

It's not all glamour of course. Among the strangest calls Bobit gets are those from women attracted to the men in the magazine. "Women want to visit them, write to them, get to know them," Bobit says. A woman from Canada called recently, trying to get some background information on one of the condemned killers. It seems her sister was writing to him, had received letters in return, and was convinced she was in love. The sister wanted Bobit's advice.

"I said, your sister wants to get involved with one of these guys and you're calling me for advice?"

Aside from the rather obvious drawbacks of having a romantic involvement with a man headed for the gas chamber, Bobit says she can't give people in-depth information. "I have 3,600 guys to try to keep track of."

And the business of keeping track may force her to hire additional staff, or upgrade her computer software. On February 9th, a former Buddhist monk was executed in California. On February 11th, Danny Lee Barber was killed in Texas. On Tuesday of last week, the magazine lost Johnie Michael Cox, 42, of Arkansas, convicted of killing his step-grandmother and two relatives. (Asked if he had any final words before being injected, Cox said: "Yes. I'm anxious. Please release me and let me go.") The same day, Andrew Cantu was executed in Texas. On Friday, Wilford Lee Berry jnr became the first man executed in Ohio since 1963.

This week, two German brothers named Walter and Karl LaGrande are scheduled to die in the gas chamber in Arizona. The pleas of the German government and a special plea by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is not expected to have much impact. The LaGrands are among 72 foreign nationals on Death Row in America.

For Bobit, the prisoners are magazine contents. "We don't take a position for or against the death penalty," she says. "We are a business."

Death Row magazine's website is http://www.deathrowbook.com.