M*A*S*H Star Mike Farrell Steps in as Executive Producer of THE WINDOW ON DEATH ROW

Linda Freund‘s award-winning documentary makes Oscar push with FYC screening November 18th in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA (November 10, 2025) 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 doc 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.

Film still from Linda Freund’s Documentary about Joaquín José Martínez story: *The Window on Death Row*

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**, Writer, Director, Producer of *The Window on Death Row*

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?”

If even one innocent person can be condemned to death, what does that say about the integrity of the justice system itself?

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.

Special screening November 18th

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).

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Witness to Innocence

Witness to Innocence (WTI) was key in connecting the filmmakers to Joaquín. WTI is an organization in the United States composed of and led by exonerated death row survivors and their family members. The mission of WTI is to abolish the death penalty and reform the United States justice system by empowering exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones to become effective leaders. WTI actively challenges political leaders and the public to grapple with the reality of a fatally flawed criminal justice system that sends innocent people to death row. WTI also seeks ways to support death row survivors and their loved ones as they confront the challenges of life after exoneration. To learn more about their work and support their mission go to their website WitnesstoInnocence.org.