''At the Death House Door'' is a 2008

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about Carroll Pickett, who served as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in

Huntsville Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was produced and directed by the team of Steve James and Peter Gilbert, co-produced by Zak Piper and Aaron Wickenden. James and Gilbert had previously worked together on the well-received

Kartemquin Films Kartemquin Films is a four-time Oscar-nominated 501(c)3 non-profit production company located in Chicago, Illinois, that produces a wide range of documentary films. It is the documentary filmmaking home of acclaimed producers such as Gordon Quinn ( ...

documentary ''

Hoop Dreams ''Hoop Dreams'' is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates an ...

'', on which James was the producer and director and Gilbert served as producer and director of photography. The film was produced by

in association with the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', which provided partial funding.

Synopsis

Pickett presided over 95 executions in his 15-year career, including the very first by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

. He kept his feelings about his work from his family, instead audiotaping an account of each one. Initially pro-execution, he became an anti-death penalty activist. Pickett was most affected by the execution of

Carlos DeLuna Carlos DeLuna (; March 15, 1962 – December 7, 1989) was an American man who was convicted of murder and executed by the State of Texas for killing Wanda Lopez, a 24-year-old gas station attendant in Corpus Christi, on the evening of Febru ...

in 1989. He firmly believed in DeLuna's innocence. In 2006, ''

'' reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills published a detailed investigation suggesting that another man, Carlos Hernández, had committed the crime for which DeLuna was executed,'I didn't do it. But I know who did.'
and the film recounts the evidence brought forth in that investigation.

References

External links

* official website * *
Movie Trailer
IFC.com
Film Review
Hollywood Reporter
Well Executed? A Haunting New Documentary Examines the Real-World Implications of Capital Punishment
Failure Magazine 2008 films Documentary films about capital punishment in the United States Films directed by Steve James Kartemquin Films films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{bio-documentary-film-stub