- Re: Fourteen Days in May Archived Message
Posted by Raskolnikov
on October 15, 2019, 9:31 am, in reply to "Fourteen Days in May"
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This is without doubt one of the most powerful documentaries ever made. There is no way this would be produced these days for a variety of reasons. I remember seeing this when it was originally broadcast (on terrestial tv no less!) I was already aware of the case but had never seen Clive Stafford Smith before. I don't have many heroes but CSS is one of them. I have no idea how he has kept on doing what he does in the face of the utterly ridiculous U.S. justice system. What the documentary doesn't show you is what the Warden of the prison said many years later. You might notice in the press conference shown after Edward's execution that the warden says he is sure justice was served but that he looks incredibly shaken and anything but sure. Years later he related how he had supervised a lot of men in their last hours and how all of them eventually either confessed or at least made some gesture of confession, asking the victim's family to forgive them for example. In Edward Earl Johnson's case he said that once he was secured in the gas chamber, before the microphones were turned on, he did his usual thing of asking if he wanted to "make his peace with god" and Edward's answer was (I'm paraphrasing) "I'm at peace with my god, but you need to worry about yourself warden because in a minute you are going to commit murder because I'm an innocent man and I can't get a god damned person to believe me" with tears rolling down his cheeks. He said that there was no doubt in his mind that he was telling the truth and it haunted him from that moment. Eventually he resigned and became an anti-death penalty advocate. I recommend Clive Stafford Smith's book "Injustice" if you want to have any remaining blinkers regarding the U.S. injustice system removed. If you haven't seen "Fourteen Days in May" then I urge you to watch it. It is seriously unforgetable and truly haunting. The Dr. Phil show that I linked above is actually not bad. It has some new information and witnesses that make the case for Rodney Reed's innocence even stronger. There are two parts and I linked the first one. The second one shows up in the suggestions if you play the first. |