What begins as a general study of crime in the city of Houston becomes something more personal, as Francois Reichenbach follows an investigation into the murder of a policeman. As the police track down the killer to a house in Tennessee, Reichenbach films his arrest and extradition back to Texas, where he is brought to trial and sentenced to death.

Following in the footsteps of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and anticipating Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line, Francois Reichenbach’s film about the shooting of a policeman and the arrest and execution of the killer, Charlie Bass, is a compelling slice of cinema verité. Reichenbach succeeds in maintaining a detached viewpoint throughout as he interviews Bass, his family, and others connected with the case. As gripping and tragic as any fictional crime story.