Alvin Melleth

But by 2024, George saw that David Wood was again scheduled for execution.

This time, George figured it would actually happen.

And this time, he was finally off parole.

So if he was going to speak up, it was now or never.

Not long after George Hall called David Woods' lawyer, David Woods' lawyer emailed me, asking me to write about the case.

I wasn't surprised.

I'm a journalist at a nonprofit called The Marshall Project, where we cover the criminal justice system.

I'm the death penalty guy on staff, as gloomy as that sounds.

But I was surprised by who was asking.

Greg Warchuk.

I know Greg Warchuk as a big deal in capital defense work.

He's been defending people on death row for decades, and even stopped one execution by winning at the Supreme Court.

I'd asked him for an interview years ago for a book I was writing on the death penalty.

He said no.

He rarely spoke to reporters.

But now here he was in my inbox.

His email was polite and panicky.

David Wood's execution date was only 17 weeks away.

He wanted me to write about the case and all the problems he saw with it.

I was pretty skeptical.