We have been working on this project since 2006, when we first started Googling "executions innocents". We read George Jackson's book, Soledad Brother, and David Von Drehles' book, Among the Lowest of the Dead. There were plenty of cases; we looked for those where the executions seemed especially unjust or in error, cases that were in doubt.

Our idea was that if we showed that twenty cases were flawed—possibly cases of mistaken executions, or political executions such as that of Joe Hill—then our series would bring the entire system into question. We sought out cases that were complicated by racism, sexism, nationalism, cases of children and cases of people who were later proved to be innocent—like Lena Baker.

To give you some idea of the scale of our national history of capital punishment: the Espy file lists 15,269 executions in the U.S. and the colonies between 1608 and 2002. Since 1976, when the death penalty was re-instated, there have been 1099 executions in the U.S..

1. Mankato, Minnesota, December 1862 | We include this image, a mass hanging of Santee Sioux, to remember the historical precedents. The locals intended to hang more than 300 Santee Sioux, but President Lincoln asked to look at the court records and determined that only 37 of the cases warranted execution. Some historical observers suggest that the fate of these 37 men was easier and more dignified than that of those who'd their sentences commuted. The Santee Sioux were reduced to landless fugitives, fleeing the wrath of the invaders.

2. Joe Hill was a Swedish immigrant and member of Workers of the World, who were organizing lumber and mining industries in the Northwest. A well-known figure, Joe was a singer and songwriter. He was arrested and accused of a robbery/murder in Salt Lake City. In an amazingly short time, despite protest from the U.S. and Europe, he was convicted, condemned, and executed by firing squad.

3. Lena Baker was trapped and confined by a hometown racist and drunk; he kept her locked up in his mill, where he abused her as he saw fit. One day, she was able to get his gun from him and, in her escape, she shot and killed her tormentor. Her trial was "black woman kills white man", and though she said, "I had no choice but to kill him, and I killed him in self-defense", she was electrocuted.

Lena’s family persisted in seeking a fair trial for her and 60 years after her execution, the State of Georgia pardoned her. We wonder if Lena pardoned the State of Georgia?

4. The Rosenberg story is well known. It seems there was no doubt that Ethel was innocent, but prosecutors hoped the threat of executing her would wring a confession out of Julius. The ploy failed, both were electrocuted, Julius first. Both maintained their innocence.

5. The ordeal of Barbara Graham was so colored with police chicanery and deceit that this case is sited as the background for the Miranda rules under which the police must announce, to a person who is being taken into their custody, just what his/her rights are. After her execution, in the gas chamber, the coroner who performed the autopsy said that Barbara was left-handed and a right-handed person had committed the murder of which she was accused.

6. The Wilbert Coffin case is up for reconsideration this year. Wilbert was the last person executed in Canada. It always seemed as though he was framed, and some writers suggest that Duplessis, premier of Quebec at the time, was under pressure from John Foster Dulles to make the culprit pay with his life. The fact that no one knew who the killer was became a simple inconvenience. Wilbert was the scapegoat. We include this case to suggest that the death penalty in the U.S. has deadly consequences in other countries.

7. It seems the U.S. Army is maneuvering to reestablish its right to carry out executions, with the Guantánamo prisoners in mind.  In this image, the execution of Private John Arthur Bennett, we take a look at the U.S. military’s record, and find it extremely racist. Bennett, hanged in 1961, was the last man executed by the military. He was guilty of raping a ten year-old girl in Austria. The child and her parents wrote appeals to John F. Kennedy asking that Bennett’s life be spared.

8. George Jackson was imprisoned, when he was seventeen, for a $75 gas station robbery. Twelve years later, he was still in jail! George grew up in the California prison system and was radicalized by the experience.  Using his pen to tell his story, he was the author of Soledad Brother. George Jackson’s conflict with the California prison system became violent and deadly. His own death at the hands of prison guards brought the drama to a close.

9. Sam Melville was a political prisoner accused and found guilty of a series of bombings in New York City. His lawyer, William Kunstler, says Sam was executed, on 13 September 1971 by state troopers, under the cloud of the Attica prison riots. Incidentally, he wasn't convicted of a capital crime and, like George Jackson, he died in prison at a time when the death penalty was suspended. Between 1972 and 1976 there were no court-ordered executions in the U.S..

10. John Arthur Spenkelink was the first execution in Florida after the death penalty reinstatement of 1976. He resisted his execution and fought it to the end. His last words were, "Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment." The Lowest of the Dead, by David Von Drehle, is an excellent, in-depth book describing Florida’s politics and Spenkalink’s execution.

11. The brothers Herrera are a painful example of the failure of eyewitnesses. One of the two police officers (David Rucker and Enrique Corrisalez) murdered that night, as he was dying, was shown a single photo and asked, by his fellow policemen, if the photo was of his killer. The dying officer said, 'yes'. Based on that, 'identification', Leonel Torres Herrerra was accused, found guilty, and sentenced to death; however, before the execution, Leonel’s brother, Raul, was killed in a drug-related shoot-out. Raul left a confession stating that he had murdered both policemen.

12. Ireneo Tristan Montoya had a right to consular protection. He was a Mexican citizen, yet the Mexican consulate wasn't notified of his confinement until after he'd been sentenced. Essentially, he had no legal counsel, the facts being what they are in Texas. He was 18 at the time of his arrest, and spoke no English. Further, he claimed, the confession he signed was presented to him, for his signature, as a deportation order.

13. Gary Graham was 17 at the time of his accusation—legally, a child. He always said he didn't kill Bobby Lambert, that he was innocent of murder. He lived on death row for 19 years. During this time, he changed his name to 'Shaka Sankofa'. Shaka never accepted the idea that he should cooperate with the prison authorities in carrying out his execution. Most people do submit, finally, and go to their death without resistance.

14. Francis Newton | At first, we felt the case against Francis was highly questionable. The motive and the crime seemed inappropriate and unbelievable, but we included her in this series to show the false medical procedure of the three injections, which, in recent years, has been in fashion throughout the country. It appears to be a medical procedure, but no doctor will carry out the execution since it goes against the oath to save lives. Therefore, prison employees,untrained and inept, give the three injections. Francis Newton’s parents observed her execution.

15. Filiberto Ojeda Rios was a Puerto Rican nationalist, as well as a self-professed and widely recognized revolutionary. He was tried for his part in a Hartford Connecticut robbery in San Juan, where the jury unanimously absolved him. He was 72 years old in 2005, and a fugitive pursued by the FBI. You might say he'd retired, to a cabin in the hills of Puerto Rico, a place called las Hormigueros. On the annual holiday when Puerto Rico celebrates the Grito de Lares—declaring her 1868 independence from Spain—Filiberto always made a speech, which was taped and played for the celebrants, since he was in hiding. In 2005, while Puerto Ricans were celebrating El Grito de Lares, Filiberto was executed in a paramilitary-style, FBI, anti-terrorism operation.

16. Tookie Williams we found curiously similar to Arnold Schwartzneggar. They were both body builders. Arnold had been the Terminator and Tookie was accused of murder. Arnold had become governor and Tookie had undergone a spiritual rebirth and transformation. Tookie had to ask Arnold to spare his life, and Arnold said, 'no'. Tookie was executed by injection, Arnold’s hometown, Graz, took his name off the local stadium, because Austria opposes the death penalty.

17. Dwayne Johnson was a suicide; he killed himself before the guards came to get him, on the day of his execution.  He wrote, with his own blood, "I am innocent."

18. Hanging Saddam Hussein had an especially Texan quality to it.

• If we already know he is going to be hung, can there be a fair trial?
• Wasn’t there more to be learned from Saddam?
• Is hanging a political solution?
• Has the situation in Iraq improved?

It was very much like a public hanging, a show trial, followed by a show-and-tell hanging. Saddam certainly looked brave and dignified, on the videos. We can’t say as much for his tormentors.

19. Donald Fell, is a Vermonter. Vermont doesn't have a death penalty. Nonetheless, after federal intervention, judge Sessions was forced to condemn Fell to death. Vermont has no facilities in which to execute him.

20. Mumia Abu Jamal is still alive, and his "guilt" is certainly in question.