When Travis Boyette is paroled because of an inoperable brain tumor, for the first time in his life, he decides to do the right thing and tell police about a crime he committed and another man is about to be executed for.

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he's done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn't want to die - he wants to be celebrated, understood. Through a kaleidoscope of women - a mother, a sister, a homicide detective - we learn the story of Ansel's life. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the...

Sashi Burgette vanished three years ago on her way to school. The night after the teenager's disappearance, ex-con Dylan Kyle was stopped for drunk driving. An article of Sashi's clothing was found in his truck, and a police videotape of his drunken explanation under interrogation sealed his fate at trial. Now, just days from Kyle's execution, Sashi's mother visits Jack Swyteck, doing pro bono work at the Freedom Institute, and delivers shocking news:...

A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

A haunting tale of murder and injustice in the Appalachian wilderness, blending fact and folklore.
Set in the lush hills of the Appalachian wilderness, The Ballad of Frankie Silver blends legends and folklore with high suspense in this stellar novel, considered one of Sharyn McCrumb's crowning achievements.
In 1833, eighteen-year-old Frankie Silver was convicted of murder in Burke County, North Carolina. Through a detailed investigation,

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In his first novel in ten years, Ernest Gaines, the highly acclaimed author of the best-selling The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, brings us a wrenching story of death and identity in a small Cajun Louisiana community in the late 1940s. A young black named Jefferson is a reluctant party in a shoot-out in a liquor store in which the three other men involved are all killed, including the white store owner. Jefferson, the only survivor, is accused...

Inspired by the atmospheric poetry of Langston Hughes and set in the heart of Denver's black community, this gripping crime novel pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice--and a crooked detective who wreaks havoc...with deadly consequences. What happens to a dream deferred--especially when an innocent man's life hangs in the balance? Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name...

Falsely accused of murdering three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas, eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed the "ringleader" of the West Memphis Three, was sentenced to death. Then in August 2011 the WMT were released. In these pages, Echols describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail.

Huntsville, Texas, a friendly, bucolic university town, is also known as "The Execution Capital of the World." This sobering program takes a close look at both sides of Huntsville, as it profiles deceased inmates Bettie Lou Beets, Billy George Hughes, and Timothy Gribble. Interviews with Huntsville's mayor, prison officials, legal counsel, victims' family members, former inmates, death penalty advocates and opponents, and, only days before his execution,...