...do watch this gruelling BBC documentary. Made in the eighties, it follows a young man through the
last fourteen days of his life, leading up to his execution in the gas chamber of Mississippi's Death Row (he was later proved to be innocent). This film shows the sheer brutality of his execution, and the dreadful punishment it inflicted on him, his family and the officers around him who believed in his innocence. Please watch it if you can spare the time. I saw it when it came out, and have just watched it again, and I have rarely been so moved or so enraged by a documentary.
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I read about this Frances. I'm afraid that each time the subject comes up now my views of the American 'justice' (an oxymoron if ever there was one) system gets even more jaundiced.
ReplyDeleteYes. It's odd, isn't It, that the US seems to stand alone in the west in its terrible abuse of fellow human beings. Graham, can I recommend Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson? A brilliant book by a brilliant man on just this subject. He's a black American lawyer who has devoted his life to defending people on death row, and also children. The Americans also imprison some children for life. Not many people know that.
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