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Death Row

The Last 12 Weeks June 18
The Countdown to David Wood’s Execution Date
One week before their client is set to die, the defense team awaits a final ruling.
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The Last 12 Weeks June 18
Meeting David Wood — And One of His Victims
We visit death row, where David Wood tries to clear his name. But not before a victim of his crimes has her say.
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The Last 12 Weeks June 18
The Defense Lawyers Approach a Victim’s Mother
In the final weeks before the execution date, the defense team has to decide just how far it’s willing to push to save David Wood’s life.
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The Last 12 Weeks June 18
A New Witness Shares a Surprising Theory
With less than two months until the execution, a witness makes a case for why David Wood isn’t the Desert Killer.
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The Last 12 Weeks June 18
What If I Follow You Around?
A Marshall Project journalist asked a defense team if he could trail them as they tried to stop an execution weeks away. Surprisingly, they said yes.
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Young Thug, a Black rapper wearing a white shirt and striped pants, holds a mic as he performs in a crowd during a concert.
Closing Argument March 28
His Rap Lyrics Helped Send Him to Death Row. Travis Scott and T.I. Are Trying to Stop His Execution.
The rappers argue that James Broadnax’s case exemplifies a larger problem in American courtrooms: The use of rap lyrics as evidence.
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An older Black man with a gray beard and dressed in a khaki-colored jacket and pants sits in a wheelchair with his hands clasped together in front of him. His daughter, a Black woman with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair and wearing a dark colored shirt, leans over his shoulders from behind to hug him around his neck. Behind them are a set of horizontal panel windows.
Life Inside March 13
Alabama Almost Executed Charles ‘Sonny’ Burton. His Daughter Tells Her Story.
Justice has long been as elusive as Bigfoot, Carolyn Amanda Shavers writes. But when Alabama’s governor spared her dad’s life, she caught a glimpse.
By Carolyn Amanda Shavers
An illustration shows a prison cell in shades of dark teal blue, with an incarcerated person with a ponytail in a beige prison uniform reaching up to a strand of DNA coming down from the ceiling. Some of the horizontal lines that tie the two strands of the DNA together have come undone and fallen on the floor of the cell. In the cell, a bed and a sink and toilet are visible.
St. Louis March 10
Missouri Man Said DNA Test Could Prove Innocence. He Was Executed Before a Court Ruled.
Lance Shockley died by lethal injection last year. State courts have rejected prisoners’ requests for DNA testing in recent years.
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A photo shows Luigi Mangione sitting at a courtroom table, wearing a gray blazer and red-checkered shirt, leaning to his right and engaging in conversation with an attorney out of the frame. Behind him are two court officers dressed in navy blue uniforms, with a pair of shiny handcuffs attached to the officers’ waists.
Death Sentences December 15, 2025
How Cases Like Luigi Mangione’s Could Widen the Death Penalty Divide
Even as more state leaders try to expand capital punishment, fewer jurors are choosing it.
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A White woman in a black shirt smiles for a picture as she hugs her father, who is wearing a white prison uniform.
St. Louis October 15, 2025
Their Dads Were on Death Row in Missouri. Here’s How They Faced Goodbyes, Executions and Grief.
The children of Lance Shockley, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams Sr. and Kevin Johnson shed light on oft-forgotten experiences.
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