On December 9, 1938, the state of Georgia executed six black men in 81 minutes in Tattnall Prison’s electric chair. While they were arrested, convicted, sentenced and executed in as little as six weeks, E. D. Rivers, the governor of the state, oversaw a pardon racket for white killers and criminals, allowed the Ku Klux Klan to infiltrate his administration, and bankrupted the state. David Beasley’s WITHOUT MERCY is the story of the stunning injustice of these executions.