âLet the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty,â by Maurice Chammah: An Excerpt Buy Book â¾ Jan. 26, 2021 3 When Danalynn Recer tells the story of her lifeâor at least of her career, though she seldom makes much of a distinctionâshe begins with a phone call. At the time, she was an extremely busy twentysomething, working on both a law degree and a masterâs in history at the University of Texas at Austin. Some lawyers called the history department and invited her to an office with an oddly vague name: the Texas Resource Center. They represented men on death row, and the name served to camouflage such unpopular work.