Life And Death Row | Preview (BBC Three)

Ten years on from the original BAFTA winning series, Life and Death Row returns for three new episodes to examine the issue of capital punishment in a dramatically altered America. Old certainties no longer hold in a divided nation grappling with an uncertain political landscape and a world dominated by the influences of celebrity culture and social media.

No side in this divided nation now fully trusts the Justice System alone to deliver justice. A run of botched executions, high profile innocence campaigns and exonerations has underlined the fallibility of the current system. New science and changing moral compasses have called old judgements into question.

Jurors have even gone on record to say that they regret past convictions and the uncertainty has allowed celebrities, podcasters and politicians a strong voice in the debate. But what of those for who the death penalty is the only real justice they could ever imagine receiving?

Victims, or their relatives, are left feeling bewildered and failed by repeated appeals, delays and the white noise of high-profile campaigns for those trying to escape death row, as social media is weaponised to lobby for guilt or innocence, and true crime sleuths pick holes in long standing prosecutions.

Through three new, observational films, the series goes inside the cases of death row prisoners facing the ultimate penalty in very modern settings – from one attempting to prove his innocence with a podcast and celebrity backing, to another facing the death penalty at trial, in a State where a unanimous Jury vote is no longer required.

Life and Death Row returns Tuesday 21st January on BBC Three and iPlayer.