A British documentary from 2016, My Dad’s On Death Row tells the story of two men who sat on Texas’s death row.

John Battaglia was a handsome man with a charming smile who, despite having a violent criminal record, had established himself as a respected accountant who had friends who lived in Highland Park (the richest part of Dallas) and who lived in a hip apartment in Deep Ellum.  In 1999, his wife filed for divorce and Battaglia was given probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of spousal abuse.  When he continued to call his ex-wife in violation of a restraining order, she threatened to inform his probation office.  Battaglia reacted by taking his two youngest daughters to his apartment, calling his ex-wife, and then forcing her to listen as he murdered them.  After killing his daughters, Battaglia went to a nearby tattoo parlor and got two roses tattooed on his bicep.  The cops who saw the crime scene described it as the most horrific thing that they had ever seen.  Battaglia was arrested and convicted of the crime.  When Battaglia was sentenced to death, he turned to his ex-wife in the courtroom and told her to “Burn in Hell.”

Coy Wayne Westbrook murdered five people, including his ex-wife, at a party in Channelview, Texas.  Westbrook said that, after his ex-wife and the other party guests made fun of him and his attempts to reconcile with her, Westbrook went out to his truck, grabbed a rifle, and opened fire when he returned.  Despite Westbrook’s claim that he didn’t originally mean to kill anyone and the defense’s claim that Westbrook’s low IQ made his incapable of understanding his actions, a jury still sentenced him to death.

Both Coy Westbrook and John Battaglia are dead now, executed by the state of Texas.  My Dad’s On Death Row documents their final days and features interviews with them, the surviving members of their families, and people who both support and oppose the death penalty.  While this British-made documentary is critical of the death penalty, it never makes the mistake of idealizing or excusing either Coy Westbrook or John Battaglia.  As someone who is personally opposed to the death penalty, nothing annoys me more than the counter-productive tendency of certain anti-capital punishment activists to insist that everyone on Death Row was either wrongly convicted or is a saint in disguise.  This documentary leaves no doubt that both Westbrook and Battaglia were guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted.  When John Battaglia smirks while he discusses abusing his wife and murdering his children, even the most liberal of viewers will want to reach through the screen and wring his neck.

The film focuses on two daughters.  Westbrook’s daughter fought to save her father’s life.  Battaglia’s surviving daughter supported his execution.  Both of them carry the psychological scars of their father’s crimes.  In its nonjudgmental way, the documentary examines what it’s like to be the child of a parent who has committed the worst crime imaginable.  Even more than being about how people die in prison, it’s about how those left behind struggle to continue their lives.  It’s a moving and thought-provoking documentary and it can currently be viewed on Tubi.