America's leading writer about the law takes a close, incisive look at one of society's most vexing legal issues Scott Turow is known to millions as the author of peerless novels about the troubling regions of experience where law and reality intersect. In "real life," as a respected criminal lawyer, he has been involved with the death penalty for more than a decade, including successfully representing two different men convicted in death-penalty...

"In early 2013, Robert Gleason became the latest victim of the electric chair, a peculiarly American execution method. Shouting Pog mo thin ("kiss my ass" in Gaelic) he grinned as electricity shot through his system. When the current was switched off his body slumped against the leather restraints, and Gleason, who had strangled two fellow inmates to ensure his execution was not postponed, was dead. The execution had gone flawlessly--not a guaranteed...

An intimate look at the death penalty in the state of Texas through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous 'Walls' prison unit in Huntsville. During Pickett's remarkable career he presided over 95 executions, including the world's first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber.

The Phantom tells the story of one of the darkest episodes in the long history of American justice. A story of how the State of Texas knowingly sent an innocent man to his death and left a serial killer at large. A case in which for the first time it can be conclusively proven that the US courts executed a blameless man. This film uncovers the shocking truth behind a tale of murder, corruption and lies that unfolded in the dusty, desperate streets...

In the summer of 1937, with the Depression deep and World War II looming, a California triple murder stunned an already grim nation. After a frantic week-long manhunt for the killer, a suspect emerged, and his sensational trial captivated audiences from coast to coast. Justice was swift, and the condemned man was buried away with the horrifying story. But decades later, Pamela Everett, a lawyer and former journalist, starts digging, following up a...

"A thought-provoking, masterfully told work of literary journalism about a shocking crime committed by a teenager-and its even more shocking aftermath. In 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a black teenaged girl kills an elderly white woman in a robbery gone wrong. The shock and awe of the case captivates the state, whose citizens cry out for vengeance. Soon after, Paula Cooper, the fifteen-year-old killer, is sentenced to death. Indiana's minimum age for the...

Follows the personal and professional exploits of a group of attorneys working at the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. They tackle some of today's most inflammatory, and sometimes irreverent, social and moral issues, from teen pregnancy and the death penalty to sex surrogates and Alzheimer's. Now, the firm faces financial ruin and its brilliant attorneys face chaotic caseloads filled with malpractice, murder, love and lust.

A death row inmate in a Southern prison possesses the unusual gift of healing. A guard discovers the inmate's miraculous power and begins to question the man's guilt.

In The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies, Hugo Adam Bedau, one of our preeminent scholars on the subject, provides a comprehensive source-book on the death penalty, making the process of informed consideration not only possible but fascinating as well. No mere revision of the third edition of The Death Penalty in America (1982) this volume brings together an entirely new selection of 40 essays and includes updated statistical and research...