In the Executioner's Shadow- Tamara Young

On April 11, I attended the premiere of the film, “In the Executioner’s Shadow”, a film directed by School of Communication professors Maggie Stogner and Richard Stack. The film gives insights into the lives of three people as they struggle with justice, injustice, and the death penalty. Jerry Givens was once the chief executioner for the state of Virginia and is haunted by how close he came to executing an innocent man. Karen Brassard was severly injured in the Boston Marathon bombing and she didn’t want the death penalty for the suspect. Vicki Schieber is a mom of a murder victim who wants life without parole instead of the death penalty for her daughter’s killer. Clips from the film was shown followed by a panel discussion of the three people in the movie along with Diann Rust-Tierney who is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project.

The film talked about statistics about the death penalty in the United States and they were very surprising to me. The United States is the only developed country with the death penalty and 19 states have abolished it. On US citizens perception’s on the death penalty, 50% support the death penalty and 50% opposes the death penalty. People are becoming more aware about capital punishment through traditional media and social media. They are finally questioning the effectiveness of the death penalty. The film also talked about the flaws in the death penalty. These flaws include the risk of executing an innocent person, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime, and it applied disproportionally against people of color and poor people.

This event relates to our course because the film is advocating against the death penalty through storytelling. We covered storytelling in class and how it is an effective way to explain a campaign through cause and effect relations and emotional content for persuasion. “In the Executioner’s Shadow” used pathos or emotional appeal by showcasing four people that have dealt with the consequences of the death penalty in different ways. The advocacy goals present in this film is challenging dominant narratives and raising awareness of alternative perspectives. The film is challenging dominant narratives by showing that killing a criminal that committed a horrible crime doesn’t need to die. The film shows that all people have the right to be free from inhuman punishment regardless of whether they have been convicted of crimes. The film also raises awareness of alternative perspectives because the three people in the film didn’t support the death penalty even though they were either a executioner, a Boston Marathon bombing survivor that was critically injured, or a mother of murder victim. Traditionally, people in their shoes would support the death penalty because they experienced a loss but they saw and understood the harsh realities of the death penalty.

Students should watch this film because it entangles the realities of the death row, the death penalty, and the U.S. justice system. Students can also check out the Death Penalty Information Center to find out facts about the death penalty in the United States, Amnesty International does a lot of advocacy work to abolish the death penalty, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty focuses solely on abolishing death penalty

The film made me question my originally held positions on the death penalty and I left the premiere enlightened about this huge issue in America.