Between 1976 and 2016, the USA executed over 1400 people. The mothers of many of the condemned men and women testified at trial, pleading for the lives of their children. EACH of these mothers receives the message that she has failed in her highest calling and that her child must be destroyed. The intense grief these women feel is unacknowledged by society. Each of these mothers has a story to tell. This film presents just a few.

As controversy rages about the efficacy of the ultimate punishment, as high profile executions are botched, as courts are again and again called upon to issue eleventh hour stays of death sentences, public awareness of the issues surrounding the death penalty has never been greater nor public debate more heated. Missing from the conversation, however, are the stories of the mothers of the death row inmates, mothers who grieve intensely but receive little sympathy or understanding for the pain they experience, as they are blamed and ostracized. This film gives voice to five of those mothers and examines the terrible social cost of shunning the family members of those on death row.

Director Biography – Linda Broocks
Linda Broocks is a trial lawyer who believes that film is the most powerful agent of social change. Although her trial practice of 38 years has focused primarily on commercial defense, she has worked on a number of pro bono or court appointed criminal appeals, including successful habeas appeals of two capital murder convictions, and has been interested in the stories of the mothers of death row inmates since law school. She made student films in college in the days of super 8 Tri X film, but this is her first film in over 40 years and her first in the digital medium.

Director Statement
This is a short version (27 minutes) of the 55 minute films I previously submitted, I believe that the shortening of the film has increased its impact.
As controversy rages about the efficacy of the ultimate punishment, as high profile executions are botched, as the Supreme Court is again and again called upon to issue eleventh hour stays of death sentences, public awareness of the issues surrounding the death penalty has never been greater and public debate on the issues never more heated.

This timely film examines serious but rarely addressed collateral consequences of the death penalty, focusing on the terrible social cost of blaming, shunning, and ostracizing the family members–especially the mothers–of death row inmates.

My approach was to include mothers whose children reflect the general demographics of death row in the United States: four men, and one woman–two African American, two white, and one Hispanic. I also interviewed a leading social scientist, Elizabeth Beck, the author of “In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families,” who explains the social and psychological phenomena that result from society’s treatment of these mothers.

This is a film that needs to be widely viewed, as it addresses an important but missing component in the public discourse on a major moral issue of our time.