Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.

Those housed in the O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, including such names as Melissa Lucio, have had their lives touched by a particular Catholic order.

Since Texas reinstated capital punishment and adopted lethal injection as its means of execution in 1977, the state has put 592 people to death, according to online records. Charlie Brooks was that first in that span. He was executed on Dec. 7, 1982 for the kidnap/murder of a Fort Worth auto mechanic.

After years on death row where he found religion and became an artist, Richard Lee Tabler stopped fighting for clemency and even asked the courts to put him to death