Powerful New Documentaries Explore Death-Penalty Issues

Three powerful new documentaries that explore the modern death penalty in the United States are set to premiere this April.

Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis and Julius Tennon are executive producers of The Last Defense, a new documentary series premiering for the first time at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on April 27. The seven-episode documentary series exposes flaws in the U.S. justice system through the personal narratives of death row prisoners Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, both whom maintain their innocence, and premieres June 12 on ABC.

On April 30, PBS will air the television premiere of Jamie Meltzer’s documentary True Conviction, which follows the detective agency started by Christopher Scott, the late Johnnie Lindsey, and Steven Phill—three wrongly convicted Dallas men who were exonerated after spending a combined 60 years in prison—as they work to attempt to free death-sentenced Max Soffar and other wrongly convicted prisoners.

Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, co-founders and co-directors of the Innocence Project have hailed the film as “unprecedented” in its approach, “focusing on the experiences of a group of exonerees who are themselves learning to investigate” and “highlight[ing] the challenges and roadblocks of investigating and proving another man’s innocence.” The film premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded a Special Jury Mention in the Best Documentary Category.

On April 11, the American University School of Communications premiered excerpts of another documentary film, In the Executioner’s Shadow, produced by AU professors Maggie Burnette Stogner and Richard Stack. That documentary weaves the intersecting stories of Vicki and Syl Scheiber, whose daughter was murdered, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Karen Brassard, and former Virginia state executioner Jerry Givens, who had carried out 62 executions, as they grapple with moral and personal issues arising from their involvement in capital punishment.

In a panel discussion moderated by the producers, Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, joined the film’s protagonists in discussing those issues.

Stack is a former public defender and author of two books on the death penalty Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment and Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions. He said he hopes the film will spark dialogue on the complex subject. “We’ve discovered through our various interviews that one side talks past the other. It’s a mutual predicament. And we’re trying to get people to talk to each other,” Stack said.

Following a screening of the first hour of the Julius Jones case in The Last Defense, the producers will lead a panel discussion with death-penalty lawyer Dale Baich.