The Last 12 Weeks

About The Last 12 Weeks

In 1992, David Wood was convicted of murdering young women and girls and burying them in the desert outside El Paso, earning him the nickname the Desert Killer. More than 30 years later, his lawyers have one last chance to argue his innocence and stop his execution. “The Last 12 Weeks” follows a team of capital defense lawyers as they try to save their client’s life. The series, produced by Serial Productions and The New York Times in collaboration with The Marshall Project, focuses on the high stakes and at times bizarre work involved in trying to halt an execution. With an extraordinary level of access to a capital case in its final stretch, the longtime death penalty reporter Maurice Chammah takes listeners into the room with the lawyers as the clock ticks down. Maurice and Alvin Melathe, a producer, follow members of the defense team as they look for alternate suspects, try to find new evidence to poke holes in the case, and track down hard-to-find witnesses. In the end, will the lawyers’ efforts be enough to persuade a deeply skeptical court system — and stop an execution three decades in the making? “The Last 12 Weeks.” A five-part series … on a deadline.

Publisher

Serial Productions & The New York Times

Category

government · society & culture · true crime

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Jun 2026

Latest episode

18 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

6 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Episode 5: A Quiet Morning

   Lead lawyer, [Host Name], interviews David Wood on death row as the defense team races against time following an unexpected ruling before his execution.

2. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Episode 4: David Wood

   Host Sarah Kerrigan interviews David Wood on death row about his claims of innocence and the impact of his past crimes on victims.

3. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Episode 3: The Mother & The Informant

   Host [Host Name] interviews [Guest Name], exploring the defense team's desperate choices and encounters with a dying witness and a victim's mother in the final weeks before an execution.

4. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Episode 2: The Whataburger Declaration

   Lawyers for the condemned meticulously examine a million tiny threads of evidence, uncovering new revelations from a surprise witness in the final weeks before execution.

5. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Episode 1: What If I Follow You Around?

   Host Sarah Smith interviews legal expert John Doe about David Wood's fight for innocence on death row before his impending execution.

6. 

   15 Jun 2026

   Trailer

   Host David Wood's capital defense team races against time to halt an execution 30 years in the making, revealing the intense final 12 weeks.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.3 / 5

299 ratings

Spotify

4.7 / 5

173 ratings

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