Gallows Glamour

By Melissa August, M.M. Buechner, Helen Gibson, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Michele Orecklin, Desa Philadelphia, Flora Tartakovsky and Josh Tyrangiel

PENALTY SHOTS No matter how dark a social cause is, it benefits from a little celebrity and fashion sunshine. This is the hope of the anti-death penalty folks, who have scored big media coups in the past two months. But how is it playing in Texas?

1 Tom Hanks' latest box-office outing, The Green Mile, features a death-row inmate who is not only innocent but has miraculous healing ability.

2 Court TV will debut The Wrong Man, a documentary series on death-row innocents.

3 Politically inspired rock band Rage Against the Machine's new hit CD, The Battle of Los Angeles, includes a plea to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a police officer.

4 The New York Times Magazine's year-end roundup of "noteworthy lives" featured John Lamb, a Texas convict executed in November whose last words echoed a theme of the anti-death cause: "I'm sorry--I wish I could bring him back. I can't."

5 Italian clothier Benetton's most recent advertising campaign, "We, On Death Row," features portraits of and interviews with death-row inmates.