Illinois, Fall 2002: Governor George Ryan faces shocking findings about flaws in his state’s capital punishment system that call his long-held beliefs into question. Suddenly, he must make one of the most difficult decisions of his life—to ignore this disturbing evidence, or to transform the entire Illinois capital punishment system. The stakes of this decision are the lives of over 170 people, and Ryan’s own political career. And he has only until January to issue his final decision. DEADLINE captures the ensuing dramatic series of events as they unfold.

At first glance, Governor Ryan is an unlikely protagonist. For twenty years, he was a tough-on-crime, pro-death penalty Republican. Voters elected him because they believed he would maintain the status quo, follow the party line, not rock the boat. But, shortly after he became governor, a group of undergraduate journalism students at Northwestern University discovered important evidence that proved a man on death row was wrongly convicted. Their revelation came just a few hours before the man’s scheduled execution. Then another death row inmate was found innocent. And another, Until thirteen people on death row were found to be wrongfully convicted and were freed. Reporters from The Chicago Tribune unearthed alarming evidence demonstrating that the problems were several layers deep—further suggesting that there could be no absolute guarantee that the Illinois criminal justice system has not, nor will ever, execute an innocent person.

Deeply worried by this information, the governor took action. He set up special clemency hearings for each person on death row. Each inmate’s lawyer was given one-half hour to make a case for his or her client’s life; each prosecutor was allotted an equal time to prove the need for the inmate’s execution. This was human drama in its rawest, most urgent form.

With astounding access to these hearings, Death Row prisoners, exonerated men and Governor Ryan himself, the documentary film, DEADLINE, brings us directly into the emotional and legal storm surrounding Ryan’s impending decision. Viewers are pulled into the story as families exchange pleas for forgiveness or revenge; as an exonerated man in Florida tries to pull the pieces of his shattered life back together; and as a formerly condemned man in New York discusses his life as an activist after Death Row. The filmmakers also shed light on the back story of the United States’ complicated relationship with the death penalty, using archival flashbacks to the landmark decisions and capital punishment policies implemented in the 1970’s that brought the U.S.—and Governor Ryan—to where they are today.

Throughout Fall 2002, the nation waited in suspense for Governor George Ryan to decide the fate of the condemned men and women of Illinois.  And Ryan waited until the last minute to decide. On January 10, 2003, just three days before his last day in office, he shocked the nation by pardoning four men. But it was his move the next day that changed the course of judicial history in the United States. Unwilling to uphold a system he found to be fraught with error, Ryan granted blanket clemency to the remaining 167 people on Illinois’ Death Row, an unprecedented move for a modern-day U.S. governor.

In DEADLINE, directors Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson tackle the volatile topic of the American capital punishment system with intelligence, compassion and balance. Furthermore, they capture the extraordinary transformation of one man who holds the power of life and death in his hands.

DEADLINE is New York-based Big Mouth Productions’ sixth feature-length documentary film and both Johnson and Chevigny’s second film. Chevigny's directorial debut was Journey to the West: Chinese Medicine Today (2002), distributed by Wellspring Media. Johnson's previous film, Innocent Until Proven Guilty, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1999 and was featured on HBO.

For more about DEADLINE, visit www.deadlinethemovie.com