Race to Execution offers a compelling and original investigation of America's death penalty by probing how race discrimination infects our capital punishment system. This film neither advocates nor repudiates the death penalty; instead, the documentary reveals the inaccuracies inherent of the racialized portrayal of victims and perpetrators in the media, where potential jurors internalize these biases and bring them into the courtroom. 
 
Race to Execution enlarges the conversation of capital punishment, focusing attention on race of jury as well as race of victim. With key 2005 Supreme Court decisions overturning death sentences in Texas and California due to racial discrimination in jury selection, the Project provides a timely analysis of the subtle, yet persistent ways our culture casually overlooks matters of race in criminal justice. 
 
The documentary traces the fates of two Death Row inmates - Robert Tarver in Russell County, Alabama and Madison Hobley in Chicago, Illinois. Their compelling personal stories are enlarged and enriched by attorneys who fought for these men's lives, and by prosecutors, criminal justice scholars, and experts in the fields of law and the media. The film includes major segments on the impact of media, along with how race bias in jury selection influences who lives and who dies at the hands of the state.

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