[6] After strong festival showings and a surge of interest in the issue of capital punishment in the United States, Herzog requested that the film be rushed into general theatrical release, which occurred on November 11, 2011.

[7] On October 24, 2001, 50-year-old nurse Sandra Stotler was murdered in her house in a gated community outside of Conroe, Texas, and her body was dumped in a nearby lake.

[5][9] The film was financed by American cable TV channel Investigation Discovery, which gave Herzog creative freedom.

[10] Herzog originally planned and shot profiles of five[6] death-row inmates in Texas and Florida,[11] one of which was Michael Perry.

After production began, Herzog decided to turn Perry's case into a feature-length documentary,[1] while the other interviews were compiled into a series of four 50-minute films that aired as the first season of the television miniseries On Death Row.

"[14] Before the film's festival premiere, its North American theatrical distribution rights were bought by Sundance Selects.

[15] When the execution of Troy Davis and the cheers for Rick Perry's execution record during a Republican primary presidential debate brought attention the issue of capital punishment in the United States, Herzog pushed for the film to be rushed into theatrical release, and, even though Cave of Forgotten Dreams was still in theaters, Sundance Selects announced in October 2011 that the film would open in select cities on November 11.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 92% based on reviews from 117 critics, with an average score of 7.8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Another probing, insightful look at an interesting subject, Werner Herzog explores the American prison system with passion and not politics.