Maurice Chammah

"A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas--and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country's death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime...