AllMovie

Though there is never any doubt where the sympathies of the filmmakers lie, this anti-death-penalty documentary nonetheless offers a powerful comment on the American criminal justice system. The focus of the American-born director's attention goes to the 79 inmates housed in Death Row at Missouri's Potosi Correctional Center. Three, especially, are interviewed at length. Their simple and articulate response to the questions put to them contrasts sharply with the pompous and flowery language used by prison officials in their interviews, who celebrate the prison as a "non-polluting local industry." In one particularly chilling interview, the designer of the lethal injection machine discusses how he became an expert in "execution technology," and the rationale behind his invention.