‘It speaks very poorly of us as a society’: Lawrence Wright on his book on death row and redemption

Why This Matters

Key context: <p>The Pulitzer prize-winning writer’s new book looks at the women on death row in Texas and the nuns who have been trying to help them</p><p>It is “stunning”, the Pulitzer-winning reporter Lawrence Wright said, that Redemption, his new book about women on death row in Texas and the nuns who minister to them, turns out to be published at a time of intense focus on capital punishment.</p><p>Two cases dominate headlines: the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/15/trump-fort-hood-execution-livestream">abandoned</a> plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and Tennessee’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/11/executions-us-christa-pike">failure</a> to kill the convicted murderer Christa Pike by lethal injection. Away from the headlines, in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/07/texas-execution-jamaal-howard">Texas</a> and elsewhere, executions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/13/florida-prision-execution-james-robertson">continue</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/20/lawrence-wright-book-death-row">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.