Death Row Stories

A former trouble-maker sits on Ohio death row for killing an elderly couple, while a desperate team of journalists, attorneys, and former law enforcement make the case of his innocence.

After a Delaware store clerk is murdered, a local drug dealer confesses to the crime..but can what he says on tape be believed?

There's no doubt Terry Williams committed murder - but what drove him to kill?

In August 1985, a quiet Philadelphia neighborhood is shattered by tragedy. A house goes up in flames, with two young boys trapped inside. Police and fire investigators suspect their father, Daniel Dougherty, intentionally set the fire, but they don’t have the evidence to arrest him — until fourteen years later, when Daniel’s ex-wife comes forward to say he confessed to her. In the years since he ended up on death row, Daniel’s case has gone to trial an astonishing three times. Daniel claims the fire science that put him away is deeply flawed — but his own dark past, and lingering mysteries about the fire itself, make this anything but an open and shut case.

After Shreveport pizza delivery man Jarvis Griffin is shot and robbed outside his car, police round up eyewitnesses and tape their interrogations. 16-year-old Corey Williams becomes the prime suspect, and under questioning, police extract his confession. Prosecutor Hugo Holland handles the case for Caddo Parish, the county with the most death penalty convictions per capita in America, and Corey becomes the youngest person on Louisiana death row. But when a dogged team of defenders takes on his case, they learn that that not only is Corey’s confession questionable — but that hidden police interviews with other eyewitnesses point to another suspect.

In May 1992, four young men enter a park in Houston, Texas. Minutes later, one of them is dead from a bullet and a shotgun blast to the head. When police track down one of the surviving drug dealers, he names 17-year-old Nanon Williams as the shooter, and other witnesses back up the story. Nanon becomes one of just over thirty juveniles on death row in America, but he pleads his innocence. As his appeals attorneys reexamine the evidence, they learn that the state made a grave error: the bullet in the victim’s brain didn’t come from Nanon’s gun, but his co-defendant’s — a man who only served four years in prison. Prosecutors stand by the conviction, even as Nanon tries to prove he’s redeemed himself behind bars.

When Tyreese Gamon is shot dead in broad daylight on a street corner, he becomes one of hundreds of murder victims in Philadelphia that year. Tyreese had a target on his back: he was slated to testify in a murder trial. Police follow the evidence to a suspected hitman named Donte Thomas. Despite his checkered past, Donte insists he’s no murderer — yet prosecutors sway a jury to sentence him to death. Years later, Donte’s appeals defender pokes holes in his original trial, including the phone allegedly used to orchestrate the hit and the failure of Donte’s original attorney to present crucial evidence.

When single mother and Phoenix bartender Kim Ancona is found brutally stabbed to death, her passing tears her family apart. Combing the crime scene, police find an intriguing clue: bite marks on Kim’s body that suggest her attacker has crooked teeth. Detectives turn to Ray Krone, a local mailman with a damaged jaw. A renowned prosecutor pushes for a death sentence, but Ray’s family and appeals attorney refuse to give up hope. They win Ray another trial, forcing him to go up against the same bite mark science that put him away the first time. Ultimately, Ray’s freedom depends on the emerging science of DNA — and finding Kim’s true killer.