Fourteen Days in May

If there was ever to be a documentary to convince us of the profound flaws of a legal system that implements the death penalty, then this might be it. James Earl Johnson has been on death row for eight years following his conviction for the murder of a local deputy and the attempted rape of a sixty year old woman. Both were white, but the extent to which that might have mattered when the charges are killing a cop and assaulting an old lady are maybe less significant that the necessity for the authorities to apprehend someone plausible and quickly. This documentary spends two weeks with this man, his lawyer, his family and the prison staff as appeals come and go and the gas chamber beckons. This film doesn’t explore the judicial process nor bog us down in court proceedings; instead it focuses more on the human aspects of a man incarcerated, convincingly protesting his innocence, whilst the system appears to have irrevocably closed it’s door on him. Job done, move on! Of course we cannot swear as to his guilt or innocence, but what you have to admit after ninety minutes is that in no way can you be sure. Personally, I felt that his punishment was as unsafe as it was unfair, but more than that it showed that imposing a sentence this terminal leaves no room for rectification later. It asks what society actually gains by committing a more judicial form of murder? Of course there are…

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