The storyline begins when one of the strip's central characters, Lisa Moore, takes a job with the public defender's office and is assigned to the capital appeals division. Her first task is to prepare an appeal in the case of Danny Madison; a Vietnam veteran convicted of murdering a party-store clerk during a robbery and sentenced to death. At his original trial all the evidence was against him, but new discoveries about witnesses and military medical records raise doubts about Danny's guilt. Is it enough to convince the courts to grant a stay of execution?

"From the moment that my character Lisa Moore announced that she wanted to be a lawyer, and a public defender in particular, she was on a collision course with one of the most difficult judicial and intensely debated issues of our day... the death penalty," said cartoonist Tom Batiuk. "Lisa's involvement in a capital case comes at a time of heightened national debate over the death penalty.

"The broader debate over capital punishment is rife with moral ambiguity, but no one, regardless of religious or political beliefs, wants to see an innocent person die," Batiuk continued. "In placing Lisa, and her client Danny Madison, squarely in the middle of this debate, I'm hoping that readers come away with many questions, and that it encourages a dialogue that may ultimately facilitate change."

[Thanks to the Criminal Justice Reform Education Fund for the heads-up.