Hbo's `A Kill For A Kill': Witness To An Execution

Some stories are just too terrible for television to encompass. But British filmmaker Rod Williams doesn't shrink from trying with the HBO documentary "A Kill for a Kill," about the first family in Texas to witness the execution of a killer. It premieres 10 p.m. today on HBO.

Of course, how Jim and Linda Kelley got to Huntsville prison in Huntsville, Texas, to watch Leo Jenkins die by lethal injection on Feb. 9, 1996, is where true tragedy lies. Jenkins killed the Kelleys' children Mark, 25, and Kara, 20, during the robbery of their Houston pawn shop in 1988. Their lives shattered, the Kelleys lost their shop and livelihood.

Still, watching Jenkins die brought them partial closure.

"I'm glad that we witnessed it," Linda Kelley said recently.

"Now we don't have to worry about Leo Jenkins anymore. He's a dark spot that's gone. The physician came in and pronounced him dead at 6:29 p.m. It was quick and easy and almost anti-climactic."

You will not see Jenkins' execution during "A Kill for a Kill." Williams' camera was not allowed into the killing chamber. Nor did Williams witness Jenkins' death, since only a few reporters were allowed to view, selected by lottery.

"If I could, I probably would have filmed the execution and then decided whether to use it when I was in the editing room," Williams said from London.

A playwright and producer of two other HBO documentaries, Williams found the Kelleys through the Mayor's Crime Victims Office in Houston after reading British newspaper accounts of the Texas decision on witnessing executions. He and his film crew spent about two weeks with the Kelleys, over a two-month period before and after the execution.

"A Kill for a Kill" aired in Britain in September, causing considerable stir. Britain abolished the death penalty over 30 years ago.

While the Kelleys say they have no regrets, others interviewed in "A Kill for a Kill," including Jenkins' lawyer, who witnessed the execution, have disturbingly different feelings. To the lawyer, the death was slow and agonizing.

"This film asks extremely difficult, challenging questions about the ethics and psychology of retribution," Williams said. "Does retribution give us what we want? Should we rise to the challenge of New Testament ethics about forgiving? My feeling is it's too easy to condemn people for NOT forgiving."