After leaving the governorship, DiSalle co-founded and served as a chairman of the National Committee to Abolish Federal Death Penalty. His 1965 book, "The Power of Life or Death," discusses this issue and chronicles his difficult experiences as the man charged with making the final decision regarding a sentence commutation. He is quoted in the book "Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution" as saying, "No one who has never watched the hands of a clock marking the last minutes of a condemned man's existence, knowing that he alone has the temporary Godlike power to stop the clock, can realize the agony of deciding an appeal for executive clemency".