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William Heinemann has acquired the rights for a new memoir by David Dow, an American death row lawyer. In a joint acquisition with Random House Australia Drummond Moir, editor bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Angharad Kowal at Writers House.
Killing Time: The Race to Stop an Execution talks about how it feels to lose a case, with innocent men killed as a result as well as convicted murderers. Dow works in Texas, a state where 99% of execution appeals are rejected. The book looks at the themes of justice and humanity as well as telling Dow's own story. The title will be published by William Heinemann as a £12.99 hardback in February 2010 and as a Windmill Books paperback in 2011.
Moir said: "Killing Time has the emotional depth and searing poignancy of a great memoir, the breathtaking pace of a first-rate thriller, and the shocking subject matter of such blockbusters as 'Dead Man Walking' and 'The Life of David Gale'. A perfect cross between Gabriel Weston’s Direct Red and John Grisham’s The Innocent Man, this is a truly exciting acquisition."
Dow has also written other titles including Machinery of Death: The Reality of America's Death Penalty Regime (Routledge) and Executed on a Technicality (Beacon).
Plan B, Brad Pitt’s production company, is currently working to develop the book as a television series.