Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Lawrence Wright's new book, Redemption, examines women on death row in Texas and the nuns who minister to them. Its publication coincides with intense national focus on capital punishment, including the Trump administration's abandoned plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and Tennessee's failed lethal injection of convicted murderer Christa Pike.
Capital Punishment in the Headlines
Speaking from his study in Austin, Wright noted that in Texas, capital punishment is so frequent a topic that people become inured to it, mentioning a recent execution that went unmentioned in the paper. He criticized the proposed livestream of Hasan's execution as "al-Qaida's dream," given his expertise from writing The Looming Tower, a Pulitzer winner in 2007. He argued that such a spectacle would serve as a recruitment ad for extremist groups.
Regarding Christa Pike's botched execution, Wright observed that such failures are embarrassing and inhumane, awakening public attention, especially when a woman is involved.
The Women and the Nuns
Redemption focuses on two groups: the seven women on Texas death row and the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a contemplative order in Waco. In 2014, deacon Ronnie Lastovica asked the nuns to meet the prisoners. Wright, who first covered this for the New Yorker, describes their first meeting and how each group transformed the other's lives.
Wright emphasized he didn't intend the book to be about capital punishment, but about the possibility of redemption. He now finds himself involved in the case of Melissa Lucio, convicted in 2008 for beating her two-year-old daughter to death. Lucio received a last-minute reprieve in 2022 amid evidence her daughter died from a fall and her confession was coerced. In 2024, a judge declared her "actually innocent," but an appeals court last month ruled she should be executed regardless.
Race, Class, and the Justice System
Wright also examines the case of Walker Railey, a white pastor acquitted of killing his wife, and criticizes law enforcement malpractice, including brutal police railroading women into false confessions and ambitious prosecutors. He cites the case of Brittany Holberg, convicted in 1998 for murdering 80-year-old AB Towery Sr, where a DA allegedly placed a snitch in her cell and scripted her testimony. Holberg's conviction was upheld last year.
Other cases include Linda Carty, a British citizen convicted without forensic evidence, and Kimberly Cargill, whose victim's death was ruled "homicide of unknown cause." Wright admitted the book has been disillusioning about the justice system.
On the possibility of redemption, Wright said: "It speaks very poorly of us as a society." He hopes for change in Texas politics, noting the state hasn't elected a Democratic candidate statewide in 32 years, but concluded: "There's cause for prayer."
