Deadline is the story of Republican Governor George Ryan of Illinois who in the final days of his term, in January 2002, granted clemency to 164 prisoners held on death row and a pardon to four others who had been proven innocent. Governor Ryan was galvanised to act because there had been too many wrongful capital convictions—already 13 people had been found innocent following investigations spurred by Northwestern University law students.
This was not a decision that the Governor came to easily. It all began a few years earlier when young undergraduate students in an investigative journalism class, by recreating the crime and interviewing people, found that an innocent man had been languishing on death row for years because the witnesses had lied, that the police had covered up information and the prosecutor was ruthless.
He was subsequently released. A Pandora’s box had been opened. Investigators soon found dozens of men on death row who were innocent because of the abusive, racist and totally suspect legal system in the State of Illinois. Up to a few weeks ago, across the United States, 117 wrongly convicted capital cases have been unearthed and exonerated. The film shows 39 former convicts marching to present a petition to Governor Ryan. Until 2000, Governor Ryan had been a strong supporter of capital punishment: to dish out just desserts and a form of deterrent.
Governor Ryan established a commission to investigate and hold hearings for each of the remaining people on death row. He was shocked by the revelations, which included torture and gross incompetence. The hearings also exposed a system that coerces “confessions of guilt” from innocent people.
He then prevaricated for weeks, finally two days before his term ended he granted a blanket clemency because he had lost confidence in his state’s legal system and preferred, if he was to err, to do so with mercy.
This remarkable documentary gives fair time to those in favour of the death penalty and those against it, including people who are members of an organisation composed of families who have lost a relative in a homicide and are still opposed to capital punishment. The hearings are presented fairly too. They became a time for the victims to express their feelings and to seek possible reconciliation.
The film examines people who were arrested in the 1970s and have been rotting in prison. At first it was confusing as the camera leapt from archival footage in the 1970s to the present. It also gave time to a prison warden in a southern state who was responsible for executing people.
He too turned against the death penalty. The film also raises the question, that if Illinois’s legal system was so inadequate, and so many innocent people were on death row, how could Texas’s be so perfect where nearly 200 people were executed during President Bush’s term as governor? One wonders how many innocent people have been killed by those states that have kept capital punishment? We will never know.
In 1972 the Supreme Court abolished capital punishment, thus commuting the sentence against 600 people on death row.
The Supreme Court then reinstated executions in 1977, but supposedly only for heinous crimes, like the murder of a policeman. About 36 states have re-introduced the death penalty, but drawing the line between cases has proven to be difficult. Once killed by the state an innocent person cannot be brought back.
One of the most contentious issues facing people in many countries is the death penalty for serious crimes. Least we forget, in the early days of colonial rule the death penalty was meted out even for theft. A few hundred years ago in England, pickpockets were hung on public gallows while other pickpockets frisked the crowd. This graphically demonstrates that capital punishment has never really been a deterrent to crime. The consequence in Africa was that thieves killed to eliminate witnesses.
Have we made progress in independent states in Africa where state sponsored executions are now confined to those found guilty of murder or treason? Perhaps not; Namibia and South Africa now have shown the way by abolishing capital punishment. It is interesting that to become a member of the European Union, states having the death penalty had to get rid of it. This is in line with UN agreements as executions are deemed inhumane, a cruel and unusual punishment. No legal system is 100 percent accurate; therefore the death penalty is not permissible in a democracy. Deadline is a powerful movie that should be viewed by all leaders in Botswana.
Playing themselves in this documentary are Governor Ryan, lawyers, prosecutors, death row inmates, the families of victims and perpetuators, university students and three investigative journalists at the Chicago Tribune who also helped to open the can of worms.
Deadline is 90 minutes long. Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson wrote the script and directed while Kirsten Johnson is also the cinematographer. The music is by Dan Marocco and Peter Nashel. The editors are Carol Dysinger and Kate Hirson.
The DVD will be released next month. Eastwood has also composed the music for it (as he did for Mystic River), but this is improved.
Sasa Majuma — e-mail: sasa_majuma@yahoo.co.uk
