The high­ly acclaimed film At the Death House Door pre­mieres on the Independent Film Channel on May 29, 2008. This doc­u­men­tary pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive into the peo­ple who par­tic­i­pate in exe­cu­tions in Huntsville, Texas. Viewers expe­ri­ence what it means to work on death row through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chap­lain and presided over 95 exe­cu­tions (includ­ing the world’s first lethal injec­tion). Following each exe­cu­tion, Pastor Pickett record­ed an audio­tape account of his trip to the death cham­ber. ​“I knew I had to talk to some­body and the only thing in my house at that time was a tape recorder,” Pickett explained. At the start of his career at the prison, Pickett agreed with the death penal­ty because of his own grandfather’s mur­der and the mur­ders of two of his parish­ioners. ​“It was a process,” Pickett said of his change to being against the death penal­ty. ​“I began to see the sys­tem wasn’t work­ing prop­er­ly,” cit­ing lack of clo­sure for vic­tims, no deter­rence of crime, and that sen­tences were arbi­trary. He also believes that some of the men he helped walk to their death were inno­cent, espe­cial­ly Carlos De Luna, whose case is high­light­ed in the film. Viewers may see the film on the IFC tele­vi­sion chan­nel start­ing tonight, May 29th, at 9pm.
(F. Lee, ​“His life with the deaths that the state car­ried out,” New York Times, May 27, 2008). See Innocence.

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