In This Timeless Time

Through words and pictures and with the force of over thirty years of fieldwork behind them, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian explore life on Death Row in Texas and in other states, as well as the convoluted and arbitrary judicial processes that populate all Death Rows. In chronicling the lives and deaths of these prisoners, Jackson and Christian document the capriciousness of capital punishment and capture the day-to-day experiences of Death Row inmates in the official "nonperiod" between sentencing and death. In the first section, "Pictures," ninety-two photographs taken during their fieldwork for the book and documentary film Death Rowillustrate life on cell block J in Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. The second section, "Words," further reveals the world of Death Row prisoners and offers an unflinching commentary on the judicial system and the fates of the men they met on the Row. The third section, "Working," addresses the profound moral and ethical issues the authors have encountered throughout their careers documenting the Row. In this stark and powerful book, Jackson and Christian realize the enormous potential of interdisciplinary documentary work and aim to influence today's debate about the death penalty and the way it is applied.