This powerful examination of capital punishment zeroes in on former Illinois governor George Ryan, who made headlines in 2003 for commuting the sentences of all of the state’s death row inmates just days before leaving office. Deadline follows the process by which Ryan, a conservative Republican and one-time death penalty advocate, came to his decision. After a Northwestern University journalism student stumbled upon evidence that exonerated several death row prisoners—and a subsequent Chicago Tribune study revealed flaws in many of the state’s capital trials—Ryan ordered a temporary moratorium on the death penalty until clemency hearings were held for all of Illinois’s death row inmates. Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson cover these hearings and explore a number of the clemency cases through interviews with prisoners and experts on capital litigation. As the flaws and fallibility of the criminal justice system grow increasingly clear, Ryan shows himself as a man willing to put his conscience before party pressures.  EM