Into the Abyss

Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog uses a disturbing triple homicide that took place in Conroe, Texas as a springboard to exploring capital punishment in this challenging, thought provoking documentary. In late 2001, Texas teens Jason Burkett and Michael Perry were arrested for a pair of murders related to a car theft gone horribly awry. Ten years later, Perry sits on death row awaiting execution, and Burkett languishes in prison on a lifetime sentence. Though interviews with the condemned man, his partner-in-crime, friends and relatives of both, local policemen, and the prison official in charge of carrying out the executions, Herzog presents an unflinching portrait of the capital punishment process that raises numerous questions about the high price we pay in our eternal quest for justice.