No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row

Kuklin prefaces her interview with Nanon Williams by noting that Nanon was still on death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) four months after the Supreme Court’s Roper v. Simmons ruling, which should have immediately released him.

Nanon was only 17 when he was charged with capital murder in commission of a drug deal in 1992. Three older acquaintances of his were also investigated but made a deal with investigators to pin the murder on their younger accomplice. Police recovered a .22 pistol belonging to Vaal, one of the older men, but the state’s ballistics expert did not even test-fire it to match it against the bullet found in the victim’s head; instead, he testified that the bullet had most likely come from Nanon’s .25 derringer, which was never recovered. As a result of this expert’s testimony and Vaal’s, Nanon was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Most of Nanon’s words in this chapter come from his published books and from letters to Kuklin, who was granted only one, two-hour interview with him. Kuklin’s interview with Nanon is the only one she conducted with a prisoner still on death row.