Maurice Chammas, the death penalty reporter at The Marshall Project, was skeptical when Greg Werchuk first pitched him on David Wood's case. But he didn't want to write the usual story — he wanted to document the impossible process of trying to stop a death sentence in real time.
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At 8:20 · chapter starts 8:10
Maurice Chammas describes himself as The Marshall Project's death penalty reporter — a gloomy beat, as he puts it — and explains why he was initially skeptical when Greg Werchuk reached out with a panicky email about David Wood. Chammas did the minimal due diligence of reading the Wikipedia page and was immediately struck by the horror of the case: 6 women and girls murdered, one as young as 14, their bodies buried in the El Paso desert. Even if George Hall's informant story was compelling, Chammas notes, that alone doesn't prove Wood is innocent. He also acknowledges the criticism of capital defense lawyers: prosecutors, judges, and victims' families often say people like Werchuk are ideological zealots using every procedural trick to delay justice. But Chammas was captivated by the real-time drama of the thing — a lawyer trying to prove innocence, not just unfairness, in a matter of months. So instead of a traditional feature, he proposed something more ambitious: follow Werchuk around with a microphone as he strategizes, hunts witnesses, and tries to change minds. Werchuk had a million reasons to say no. Chammas is still amazed he said yes.
With just 87 days before David Wood's execution, reporter Maurice Chammas convinces death penalty lawyer Greg Werchuk to let him follow the team with a live microphone. The result is an unprecedented look inside the last-minute scramble to save a death row inmate's life.
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