Capital Punishment of the Innocent Edward Earl Johnson

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Capital Punishment of the Innocent Edward Earl Johnson Edward Earl Johnson was put in death row when he was eighteen. A documentary was made when he was twenty-six, called “fourteen days in May.” Edward claimed all along that he was innocent yet he was still executed. The documentary showed he had lived for eight years at the Parchment state penitentiary, Mississippi (death row.) Edward was put to death row for the attempted rape of an elderly white woman and the murder of a white Marshall. The documentary tried to show his innocence, the process of this is what this essay will be about. The opening scenes from the documentary showed the Parchment State Penitentiary. You saw a large building inside of barbwire (sharp enough to have sliced you to bits). Inside of the building were hundreds of doors separated by metal doors. When you saw the prisoners cells, all of the prisoners were all standing with there hands reached out by which the camera tried to emphasise the point of “slavery.” You saw shots of the gas chamber, inside sat the chair Edward died in, with the belts that strapped him in. It showed most of the staff treating the prisoners like slaves, you see them working in lines digging in the fields with the staff watching over them on their horses with their whips. This just showed how little things have changed since slavery. A pep talk that the superintendent gave to workers about “off colour remarks” proves that there was racism at the Parchment Sate Penitentiary. The documentary showed many of the interviews. The interview with Edward was long and detailed (behind bars, as was most of the interviews with him) so he could give his side of the story: Edward said that eight years ago when he was first taken to t... ... middle of paper ... ...ade. At the end of the sequel, Samual Johnson says “I still try to love and care.” and “Hate perpetinates hate!” The only appeal was hope. Both of these documentaries carried out the message: “Innocent people can die.” The statistic that came up on the screen many times:- You are four times as likely to get the death sentence if you are a black who killed a white as a white man who is convicted of the same crime. If you were rich, you were more likely to get let off the death sentence more than a poor person was. From the documentaries you could see that death row is a cruel place which is torture alone and not only does the prisoner suffer for the time he/she is in there but so does their family and friends who are behind them. It must be hard on the prison staffs who become close to them, at the end of their sentence they have to kill him/her.

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