AllMovie

Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog uses a disturbing triple homicide that took place in Conroe, Texas, as a springboard to exploring capital punishment in this challenging, thought-provoking documentary. In late 2001, Texas teens Jason Burkett and Michael Perry were arrested for a pair of murders related to a car theft gone horribly awry. Ten years later, Perry sits on death row awaiting execution, and Burkett languishes in prison with a lifetime sentence. Through interviews with the condemned man, his partner-in-crime, friends and relatives of both, local policemen, and the prison official in charge of carrying out executions, Herzog presents an unflinching portrait of the capital-punishment process, one that raises numerous questions about the high price we pay in our quest for justice.