Alex Mar | Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy

In conversation with Shane Claiborne Alex Mar is the author of Seventy Times Seven, a chronicle of the brutal 1985 Indiana murder of an elderly white woman by a fifteen-year-old Black girl.  ''A probing examination of the intersection of race, crime, and punishment (Kirkus), it delves into the crime's reverberating effects across the world and the victim's grandson's campaign to spare the perpetrator from execution. Mar's other work includes Witches of America, ''a genuine and touching'' (Los Angeles Times) five-year journalistic foray into modern day occult belief and her own relationship to mysticism. American Mystic, her feature-length documentary feature film about members of fringe religious sects, premiered to wide acclaim at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Her essays have appeared The New York Times Book Review, The Believer, The Guardian, and Wired, among many other outlets.  Shane Claiborne is a cofounder of The Simple Way, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that works in the New Monastic tradition to live, minister, and improve its Kensington community. Also an activist, prominent public speaker, and author, he is the author of many books, including The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical; Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence; and Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us. (recorded 3/30/2023)