Dead Man Walking – Death Row Documentary

A Texas prison prepares for the execution of another young black man. Four leather belts will strap him to a white bed as he waits for the lethal injection. Visitors can stand in an adjacent room and watch through a barred window.
Glenn McGinniss is on death row and feels like a dead man walking. He describes how at seventeen he stole money for his mother who was in prison with a crack habit. When a young woman started screaming he panicked and shot her. An all white jury condemned him to death by execution. His grandmother shows us photos of him a chubby child laughing at the camera. Prisons crowded with young black men is a national phenomena. Blacks make up 41% of the prison population but only 12% of the American population. White parents of the victims recommend watching the executions. One father says, “they have to be removed from society like a rabid dog.” Lynching of blacks at the courthouse is no longer permitted, but judicial prejudice still runs deep.

Filmed in 2006