These side-by-side interviews, with a hate crime victim who was shot in the face and the death row inmate who shot him, are simply breathtaking.

Ten days after the attacks of September 11, in Texas, Mark Anthony Stroman shot three people, killing two of them. The third, a man named Rais Bhuiyan, survived, but with grave injuries. Now, Stroman is on death row and his execution is just weeks away, and Bhuiyan is working to secure his reprieve from the death penalty.

The New York Times interviewed Bhuiyan by phone, and Stroman by letter. The result is some of the most heart-wrenching description of violence and forgiveness I’ve ever come across.

When asked why he is trying to save the life of ...