Back From The Dead is the story of two hundred former inmates of death row who, through a lottery of fate, were given a second chance at life. Many have not been so lucky.After representing Walter Whitman, a convicted murderer and Texan Death Row inmate, as a young lawyer, Joan Cheever wanted to discover whether he could have been rehabilitated into the community? Had his execution protected society or was it simple revenge? To find the answers she left her white-picket world and young family and went in search of former residents of Death Row. Her journey led her across the United States, into the lives of these killers. She heard their stories at first hand, sometimes in seedy motels and sometimes at danger to herself. In Back from the Dead Joan reveals these tales of tragedy and failure, of racism and injustice, but also in some cases of triumph and redemption.