Dead Man Walking: Dan Walker on Death Row
Duration: 1 x 90'
Play Trailer Play Screener Contact SalesWith unprecedented access, this hard hitting documentary seeks to uncover the truth about capital punishment in the US exploring the reality of life on death row and seeing what is involved in a state sanctioned execution.
Dan Walker travels to Huntsville, Texas – the execution capital of the world, home to the most active and prolific death chamber in the United States. It has seen nearly 600 executions since 1982, and houses some of the most dangerous inmates in the country. He meets a prisoner face to face awaiting his fate on death row for over 20 years - convicted of double murder in the brutal killing of his ex-girlfriend and her new partner. Then he finds the son of the victim, who is seeking justice for the crime and believes death is the only appropriate punishment.
He also meets the spiritual advisor of a man convicted of killing a pastor at a church - who is just days from being executed - and witnesses the final conversations between them. Meeting the prison guards who have been tasked with carrying out dozens of executions, and those who have witnessed hundreds of people put to death, Dan asks; "What’s the truth about the famed ‘last meal’? What is said to the inmate as they enter the chamber itself? And what happens in the 24 hours leading up to execution?"
Dan gains access to a death row execution chamber - he enters the small, dimly lit room containing the gurney where inmates are strapped down, and the room where witnesses observe the final moments – from the inmate’s arrival to the administering of the sedative and then the lethal chemicals which will end their life.
He also raises the difficult questions about what might happen if the perpetrator is later found to be innocent. Dan meets a man who dodged the execution room - spending almost 30 years on death row only to be eventually acquitted of the crime and released. Decades spent waiting to die, all the while knowing he was wrongfully imprisoned. Having been released less than a year ago, how is he adapting back into society after all that time behind bars?
In this deep and revealing journey in the US he finds a system that is disturbing, shocking and as complex as ever.
For Channel 5
