The doc­u­men­tary film Race To Execution by Rachel Lyon will air nation­al­ly on the Emmy Award-win­ning PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 10 p.m. Race to Execution offers a com­pelling and orig­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion of America’s death penal­ty, prob­ing how race dis­crim­i­na­tion infects the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The film reveals the poten­tial bias­es in the racial por­tray­al of vic­tims and per­pe­tra­tors in the media, par­tic­u­lar­ly where poten­tial jurors inter­nal­ize these stereo­types and bring them into the court­room.

Race to Execution enlarges the con­ver­sa­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment by focus­ing atten­tion on race of jury as well as race of vic­tim. Filmed on the heels of key 2005 Supreme Court deci­sions over­turn­ing death sen­tences in Texas and California due to racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion, the movie pro­vides a time­ly analy­sis of the sub­tle, yet per­sis­tent ways our cul­ture casu­al­ly over­looks mat­ters of race in crim­i­nal jus­tice.

The doc­u­men­tary also traces the fates of two Death Row inmates — Robert Tarver in Russell County, Alabama, and Madison Hobley in Chicago, Illinois. Their com­pelling per­son­al sto­ries are enriched through accounts offered by the attor­neys who defend­ed them, and by pros­e­cu­tors, crim­i­nal jus­tice schol­ars, and experts in the fields of law and the media who fol­lowed their cas­es. The film includes major seg­ments on the impact of media, along with how race bias in jury selec­tion influ­ences who lives and who dies at the hands of the state. (PBS, Independent Lens, March 8, 2007).
Find out more about the film. See also, Race.

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