Death Penalty Documentary Nominated for Academy Award

Here is a link to the Documentary 

I am Ready, Warden, a doc­u­men­tary about Texas death row pris­on­er John Henry Ramirez, was announced as a nom­i­nee for Best Documentary Short at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film tells the sto­ry of the days lead­ing up to Mr. Ramirez’s 2022 exe­cu­tion. It fea­tures inter­views with Mr. Ramirez and his son, Israel, as well as Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, who oppos­es the death penal­ty and sought to halt Mr. Ramirez’s exe­cu­tion. It also cen­ters the expe­ri­ence of Aaron Castro, the son of Pablo Castro, who was killed by Mr. Ramirez. 

Director Smriti Mundhra said she hoped the doc­u­men­tary would test ​“our capac­i­ty for for­give­ness and … redemp­tion.” Ms. Mundhra was inspired to cre­ate the film after read­ing cov­er­age of the case by jour­nal­ist Keri Blakinger. Ms. Blakinger said, ​“I knew that one of the things that attract­ed me to this case was the oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the idea of redemp­tion in a case where the con­demned is unequiv­o­cal­ly guilty. A dis­pro­por­tion­ate amount of death row cov­er­age focus­es on inno­cence cas­es, even though I think cas­es where the con­demned is guilty raise much more nuanced moral quan­daries.” She was par­tic­u­lar­ly grate­ful for Mr. Castro’s par­tic­i­pa­tion, say­ing, ​“It gave us the chance to inter­ro­gate the death penalty’s promise of clo­sure in a way I’ve nev­er been able to in print.” 

I am Ready, Warden is avail­able to stream on Paramount+.