Tag: Death Penalty

Chronicling the Struggle for Justice in “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality”

In some quarters, most people who know about Bryan Stevenson and his work see him as a hero. But many do not know about the wonderful work he has been doing for decades. The new HBO documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality hopefully will reach a wider audience about the work done by Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which Stevenson started in 1989.

Bryan Stevenson HBO

Stevenson and his colleagues at EJI in Montgomery, Alabama have worked to help wrongly convicted and unfairly sentenced defendants. They have won reversals for more than one-hundred people on death row. And Stevenson has personally argued before the U.S. Supreme Court several times.

Stevenson and EJI also work to educate the country about the history of racial injustice. They created the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, working to educate people about 4,400 victims of lynching.

Great Work and a Fascinating Man

The accomplishments are amazing, and the documentary provides insight into the racial discrimination present in our criminal justice system. Just hearing Stevenson’s clients discuss their cases and see reactions to the lynching memorial make watching True Justice worthwhile. But Stevenson, who has long shied away from participating in a documentary despite his many awards and public appearances, makes this film essential viewing for all Americans.

Stevenson is an amazing person, perhaps one of the closest things we have to a saint walking among us. His work is humble and selfless, as the documentary lightly touches on the sacrifices Stevenson has made to do to work he has done. But Stevenson does not see himself that way, as the glimpses we get of his personal life show someone who is happy in the choices he has made.

Stevenson is a great speaker whether talking intimately to the camera or appealing to a large crowd. Maybe the nearest we get to understanding what drives him is his stories about his family and grandmother. For example, he recounts a story when as a child he had laughed at another kid who stuttered. He tells how his family corrected him, not with punishment, but by telling him to apologize to the other little boy and to hug him and tell him he loved him. The response the young Stevenson receives surprises him, but one can see the foundations of his life reflected in that moment.

Movie viewers will soon learn more about Stevenson because his memoirs, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is being made into a film starring Michael B. Jordan. The film is set to be released in January 2020, but you should take the opportunity to catch the real thing now. HBO currently is allowing everyone to watch True Justice on its website for free.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • One for Ten: Traveling Online Film Series on Capital Punishment
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty

    Nebraska Death Penalty The Nebraska unicameral legislature in 2015 voted to abolish the death penalty, following a number of states that have come to realize that capital punishment is ineffective and a waste of resources. Although Governor Pete Ricketts vetoed the action, the legislature overrode his veto, making Nebraska the eighteenth state (in addition to the District of Columbia) that does not sentence human beings to death. According to a recent book on the history of the death penalty, states that have stopped sentencing people to death in recent years also include Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Maryland.

    One of the great songs about the death penalty is Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” which Springsteen based on Terrence Malick’s movie Badlands.  And that movie was loosely based on the real-life case involving Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.

    The song, in the voice of the condemned, offers no straightforward judgement on the death penalty.  Springsteen would address the topic again years later in his song “Dead Man Walking.”

    But by taking the voice of the condemned man in “Nebraska,” Springsteen challenges the listener to find some humanity in the narrator. By the time the singer/condemned tries to explain why he did the horrific things he did, all he can come up with is “I guess there is just a meanness in this world.” Taken on its face, one might find little sympathy for the killer. But the way Springsteen sings the words, you believe that the condemned is not a personification of evil.  Instead, he comes across as someone unable to understand the world because he has been on the other end of that meanness his whole life too.

    Thus, it is not surprising that in the real world, Bruce Springsteen is opposed to capital punishment. Below, following an introduction about how the album Nebraska focuses on the downtrodden, Springsteen performs the song “Nebraska” on a 12-string guitar with harmonica from a benefit show in Los Angeles in November 1990.

    The real Starkweather grew up with a birth defect and a speech impediment, and he was a slow learner. Nebraska executed Charles Starkweather in the electric chair, just like in Springsteen’s song.  Starkweather died on June 25, 1959 at the age of 20.

    The young teenaged girl who went with him on the murder spree did not die in his lap.  She was eventually paroled in 1976 and lives in Michigan, which is the first state in the United States to abolish capital punishment.

    Check out our posts on other songs about capital punishment.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
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  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle
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    The Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti: Two Good Arms

    sacco vanzetti

    On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair. The execution of the Italian-born anarchists drew worldwide protests from people who believed the two men were innocent of the murder charges against them. Many today still debate whether or not the two were guilty of the crime, but most agree that anti-immigrant sentiment and other factors affected the fairness of their trial.

    The saga of Sacco and Vanzetti has inspired various forms of art, including songs. Chimesfreedom previously addressed the songs that Woody Guthrie wrote about the case.

    Charlie King’s “Two Good Arms”

    Additionally, folksinger Charlie King wrote an excellent song about the case called “Two Good Arms,” and I have seen him perform it on several occasions. King, who grew up in Massachusetts and has been performing for fifty years, is not as well known as he should be. But artists like Pete Seeger have recognized his talent.

    Here is King’s “Two Good Arms” below.

    For another version, here is Holly Near covering his song at the 1987 Philadelphia Folk Festival. And you may hear King’s original version on his webpage and a live performance here.

    King took much of the lyrics of “Two Good Arms” directly from the speech that Vanzetti made at his sentencing. It is interesting how he recognized the poetry in Vanzetti’s own words.

    At the sentencing, the native Italian speaker presented his plea in English: “That I am not only innocent of these two crimes, but in all my life I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilled blood. . . . Not only am I innocent of these two crimes, not only in all my life I have never stolen, never killed, never spilled blood, but I have struggled all my life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime from the earth. Everybody that knows these two arms knows very well that I did not need to go into the streets and kill a man or try to take money. I can live by my two hands and live well.”

    Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti

    The fate of Sacco and Vanzetti remains relevant today, as many debate whether states have executed innocent people in recent years. A new book, The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, recounts how Texas may have executed an innocent man when it executed Carlos DeLuna. Others claim that other executed men like Cameron Todd Willingham were innocent.

    It is difficult to prove innocence to everyone’s satisfaction after someone has been executed, but these and other cases certainly raise questions about the justice system, as any system run by humans is bound to make mistakes at some point. Thus, one may wonder whether society should execute people rather than holding them in prison. These ongoing risks make it important that we answer the opening question of Charlie King’s song with an affirmation that we all will remember past injustices and work to prevent them in the future.

    Photo of Vanzetti (left) and Sacco (right) via public domain.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”

    Rosenbergs

    On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair for conspiracy to commit espionage, for allegedly passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Many argued that the two were innocent and not given a fair trial in the face of anti-Soviet paranoia at the time.

    The Bob Dylan song “Julius & Ethel” is an outtake that was recorded during Dylan’s Infidels (1983) sessions with Dire Straits’s Mark Knopfler. The song recounts the story of the Rosenbergs, capturing the persecution atmosphere of the times. For example, the line “Senator Joe was king” refers to Sen. Joe McCarthy, who led a witch hunt for communists.

    Dylan, not surprisingly, takes the position that a societal injustice occurred, putting the case in the context of its time period: “Someone says the fifties was the age of great romance / I say that’s just a lie, it was when fear had you in a trance.” Thus, he concludes that the Rosenbergs were not given a fair trial.

    Now that they are gone, you know, the truth it can be told;
    They were sacrificial lambs in the market place sold —
    Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel


    Bob Dylan: Julius & Ethel by CaseyDeiss

    Today, most conclude that Julius had some involvement in the passing of information to the Soviets, although many also debate whether the information was significant. Still, a large number of people continue to maintain that Ethel was innocent. Either way, the prejudices of the times affected the fairness of the trial. And the arguments about the use of the death penalty against innocent defendants continues in the U.S. to this day.

    As for Dylan’s song, around the Internet many fans of the song argue that Dylan should have included it on the album. What do you think?

    Photo via Library of Congress.

  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle
  • Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    The Legacy of Bridget Bishop and the “Witches” of Salem

    Salem witch trial
    Bridget Bishop

    On June 10, 1692, Bridget Bishop became the first person hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being accused of being a witch. By the end of the year, a total of nineteen innocent men and women had been hanged –and one man had been pressed to death — as a result of the Salem witch trials.

    Hysteria around accusations of witchcraft were not unique to Salem and occurred around the world.  But the Salem executions remain prominent in America’s history. There are various theories about the conditions and rivalries that led to the accusations of witchcraft and the government’s condoning of the executions.

    The Crucible

    Although the U.S. does not hang people for being witches today, the Salem witch trials are still invoked for modern day forms of hysteria. Playwright Arthur Miller used a dramatic interpretation of the Salem witch trials to comment on the witch-hunting of his own time. His play The Crucible opened in 1953.  This fictionalized version of the Salem witch trials provided a commentary on the American government’s hunt for communists during Miller’s time.

    Director Nicholas Hytner turned Miller’s play into a movie in 1996. The film version of The Crucible stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, and Joan Allen.

    At the time of the movie’s release, Miller wrote an essay in The New Yorker, “Why I Wrote ‘The Crucible.'” In the article, he explained that when he wrote the play over the course of a year, he also thought of other recent events of national insanity, like the Nazis in Germany. He also noted that the play continued to be relevant to later events in Joseph Stalin’s Russia, Mao Zedong’s China, and Augusto Pinochet’s Chile.

    In his essay, Miller further explained, “below its concerns with justice the play evokes a lethal brew of illicit sexuality, fear of the supernatural, and political manipulation.” The play remains relevant as a reminder to stand up against hysteria and tyranny.

    The West Memphis 3

    A few years before the release of the film version of The Crucible, similar concerns about justice, illicit sexuality, fear of the supernatural, and political manipulation arose in the prosecution of the West Memphis 3. That case involved three young men convicted of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.

    In the case, where some evoked parallels with the Salem with trials, the three accused eventually were released.  Documentaries had helped create supporters for the three young men.

    One of the three young men in the West Memphis 3 case, Damien Echols, was sentenced to death.  Echols dressed and believed differently than others in the Arkansas community. Many believed his differences contributed to the reason he was prosecuted and sentenced to death.

    After Echols was released from prison, he moved to Salem, Massachusetts. He explained, “Due to its history, Salem’s like a mecca for people in any form of alternative spirituality.”

    A recent movie, Devil’s Knot (2013), tells the story of the West Memphis 3 in a dramatic retelling. That film, by chance or intent, was released on DVD in 2014 on the June 10 Salem anniversary.

    Devil’s Knot, which stars Colin Firth and Reese Withspoon, is a decent introduction to the West Memphis 3 case and features a strong performance by Witherspoon.  But the movie may try to do too much. And it is hard to beat the outstanding Paradise Lost documentaries.

    The three documentaries are worth seeking out (the first of which currently is on YouTube).  But viewers should be prepared that the films evoke strong emotions in recounting the horrible murders and problematic justice system. Similarly, the 1996 movie version of The Crucible features fine acting and remains a powerful reminder that injustice is not confined to one time period.

    The Legacy of Salem

    Bridget Bishop was around sixty years old when she went to the gallows. But we do not know what she thought as the executioner put a noose around her neck this week in 1692.

    Perhaps the residents of Salem failed to stop the execution because of their own fears. Perhaps they would not risk their own lives for someone who was “different” because she had been married three times, frequented taverns, and did not dress like other Puritans.

    But I wish Ms. Bishop could have known that she and the other condemned “witches” would not be forgotten.  And I wish they could know that they continue to challenge us and make us question our beliefs more than three hundred years later.

    Bridget Bishop picture via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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