Future Forum | Mar, 3 2025 6:30PM - 8:30PM
For decades, Texas has been the state most closely associated with the death penalty. That's still true to this day. Rather than dedicating time to one specific case or debating the validity of capital punishment, the Future Forum hosted an intimate conversation centered on the cost, gravity, and frequency of the death penalty in this state.
This conversation, moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maurice Chammah of The Marshall Project, featured a rich discussion with Richard Linklater, renowned Austin filmmaker and mind behind the recent documentary Hometown Prison, and Estelle Hebron-Jones, death penalty lawyer for the Texas Defender Service and formerly of the Equal Justice Initiative. They touched on a variety of topics, ranging from the death penalty's widespread impacts on communities and families to its deep cultural roots in the Texas criminal justice system.
Speakers included:
- Estelle Hebron-Jones, Director of Special Projects, Texas Defender Service
- Richard Linklater, Director of Hometown Prison Documentary
- Moderator: Maurice Chammah, Staff writer for The Marshall Project, author of Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
The conversation was hosted in the 10th-floor Atrium of the LBJ Presidential Library.
