DPI’s Podcast 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context: Journalists Reflect on the Challenges and Importance of Media Reporting on the Death Penalty

In this month’s pod­cast episode of 12:01 The Death Penalty in Context, DPI’s Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Sam Levin, a cor­re­spon­dent with The Guardian who cov­ers crim­i­nal jus­tice and the legal sys­tem, and Jimmy Jenkins, a crim­i­nal jus­tice reporter for The Arizona Republic, about the chal­lenges they encounter when report­ing on the increas­ing secre­tive use of the death penal­ty. Mr. Jenkins has wit­nessed exe­cu­tions in Arizona and Mr. Levin has recent­ly inves­ti­gat­ed South Carolina’s return to exe­cu­tions after a 13-year pause.

Amid grow­ing efforts by state offi­cials to restrict media access to death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers and shield exe­cu­tions from the pub­lic, Mr. Levin and Mr. Jenkins remind us of the crit­i­cal role inde­pen­dent media play in ensur­ing gov­ern­ment account­abil­i­ty in a healthy demo­c­ra­t­ic soci­ety. They dis­cuss why it is essen­tial for media wit­ness­es to be present at exe­cu­tions to ensure the pub­lic under­stands exact­ly ​“what’s being done in their name.” As Mr. Levin explains, the exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Smith in Alabama was a note­wor­thy exam­ple of why media wit­ness­es are so impor­tant because ​“what the media saw was so dif­fer­ent from what was report­ed by state offi­cials.” Mr. Levin and Mr. Jenkins also describe their role in expos­ing the mis­takes of government officials.