What if a death sentence gave you a second chance at life? The story of Joaquín José Martínez, the first Spaniard exonerated from U.S. death row, challenges our beliefs about justice, faith, and forgiveness.
Synopsis:
“I would have been dead today if I hadn’t gone to death row.”
Joaquín José Martínez, the first Spaniard ever exonerated from U.S. death row, was once a supporter of capital punishment until, at 24, he was convicted of a double murder in Florida. He spent more than five years behind bars, three on death row. Two decades after he was exonerated, Joaquín transforms his trauma into advocacy.
The Window on Death Row explores urgent questions: What happens when we almost execute an innocent man? Is closure possible for the victims’ families? And how do we reconcile the contradiction that facing a death sentence, even an unjust one, can paradoxically lead to a second chance at life?
Director: Linda Catherine Freund
Executive Producer: Mike Farrell (Actor & Activist)
Joining us at 9:15am is award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Linda Freund, director of The Window on Death Row, a powerful, documentary that explores wrongful conviction, faith, forgiveness, and the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit to find meaning after unimaginable trauma.
The film tells the story of Joaquín José Martínez, the first Spaniard ever exonerated from U.S. death row. Convicted of a double murder in Florida at the age of 24, Martínez spent more than five years behind bars, including three years on death row, before being acquitted in 2001. More than two decades later, he reflects on his experience and transforms his personal trauma into public advocacy.
Rather than following a traditional true-crime narrative, Freund takes a deeply human approach, examining the psychological and spiritual aftermath of incarceration and raising profound questions about justice, redemption, forgiveness, and the possibility of beginning again.
Freund's impressive career spans documentary filmmaking and international journalism. She most recently served as a senior video journalist at The Wall Street Journal and was a journalism fellow at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Brandeis University's Chaplaincy Innovation Lab. Earlier in her career, she reported from conflict zones across South Asia and East Africa.
Her previous documentary, The Migrant Priest (2022), was filmed in Italy and explores the experiences of a priest working with migrants.
For The Window on Death Row (2025), Freund served as director, writer, producer, and editor. The film also features actor and activist Mike Farrell (MASH*) as executive producer.
The documentary has received recognition at several international festivals, including the Grand Prize Audience Choice Award for Best Short Documentary at the 2025 Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Immaculate Heart Community Filmmaker Award at LA Shorts International Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the 2025 LA Femme International Film Festival.
Join us for a conversation with Linda about the power of storytelling, the complexities of the human experience, and how we find hope, purpose, and humanity even in the darkest of circumstances.
PRESS RELEASE
Renowned actor, producer and human rights advocate Mike Farrell, best known for his
role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on “M*A*S*H*,” has joined the Oscar-qualifying
documentary “The Window on Death Row” as executive producer. A leading voice
against capital punishment, Farrell has championed human rights for more than three
decades. He has been president of the non-profit advocacy organization Death Penalty
Focus since 1994.
Written, directed and produced by Linda Freund, “The Window on Death Row" is campaigning for best documentary short at the Academy Awards. The film tells the story of Joaquín José Martínez, the first Spaniard exonerated from the U.S. death row who was once a supporter of capital punishment until, at age 24, he was convicted of a double murder in Florida. He spent more than five years behind bars, three on death row. The case pitted U.S. policy against that of the European Union, which bans the death penalty. Nearly 20 years after his exoneration, Martínez transforms his personal trauma into public advocacy. His Catholic faith and relationship he built with his death row chaplain Dale Recinella are central to his healing. Yet even in freedom, redemption proves complex. “I would have been dead today if I hadn’t gone to death row, the way that I was living,” Martínez says.
Farrell calls the film “unusual, touching and very inspiring,” praising its powerful, life affirming approach. “The possibility of someone rising out of the depths of despair to become not only a thoughtful but a caring, gentle and humane human being is one of the beauties of this film,” he says. "This film is really a prayer—one those who watch it will profit from.”
According to Freund, “The Window on Death Row” resists the true crime formula that saturates streaming platforms and podcasts. “That approach turns viewers into the judge and jury, and in doing so, reduces prisoners or exonerees to an ‘it.’ Guilty until proven innocent. This is a story about faith, second chances and what it means to hold onto love, forgiveness and humanity in a place built to extinguish all three.”
Linda Freund is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Barcelona. Prior to “The Window on Death Row” (2025, Spain), she directed the documentary “The Migrant Priest” (2022, Italy). Most recently, she was a senior video journalist at The Wall Street Journal. Previously, she reported from conflict zones across South Asia and East Africa. Mike Farrell has been an active figure in the U.S. movement to abolish the death penalty for decades and serves as president of the board of Death Penalty Focus. When challenging the death penalty, he says the real question “isn’t whether death row inmates deserve to live, but do we deserve to kill?”
In 2025, more than 40 people have been executed in the United States, the highest number in a decade, even as public support for capital punishment declines. “The Window on Death Row” provokes the question: If even one innocent person can be condemned to death, what does that say about the integrity of the justice system itself? “The Window on Death Row” had its world premiere in August 2025 at the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize Audience Award for Best Documentary. The film also received the Best Documentary Award at the La Femme International Film Festival and the Immaculate Heart Community Filmmaker Award at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.
There will be a special FYC screening of “The Window on Death Row” on Tuesday, November 18th at the New York Film Academy Screening Room, 3300 W. Riverside Drive, Burbank, CA 91505. The screening will begin at 7:30PM with a Q&A to follow, with Freund and Farrell, moderated by radio and television commentator Mr. Mo’Kelly (“The Mo’Kelly Experience”).
