I watched Season One of Boston Legal in its entirety today. An absurd show, that I found absolutely hilarious. I only hope that I can use my internship with the PD office as a springboard to becoming the next Denny Crane. Denny Crane.
Season One ended with an episode about the death penalty. Now most of my audience gets to blog about ethical concerns that come up with real clients. I get to blog about ethical concerns that come up from watching TV shows like Boston Legal. Lame, but deal with it. Anyway that episode really pissed me off. I realize most of Boston Legal is just absurd satire on firm life, but this episode was slightly different. I would not be surprised for a second if the facts of the death penalty case from the show were taken from real life. It was a Texas case where an African American man with an IQ of 80 was accused of murdering a gas station clerk. DNA evidence placed someone else at the scene. The defendant confessed after 16 hours of interrogation and had no memory of actually committing the murder. His trial attorney gave no opening statement and failed to cross almost all of the prosecution witnesses and failed to investigate important leads. He also admitted to being on cocaine. The court couldn't care less. That pisses me off.
I don't know why I wanted to write about this episode. I've always been against the death penalty. Death penalty cases always piss me off. I don't know why an episode of Boston Legal pissed me off so much. Maybe because it was after a 12 hours marathon of television (which I realize is a luxury I will not have much longer) but that episode moved me more than John Grisham's book "The Innocent Man" or anything else I've read. It pissed me off more than the movie "The Life of David Gale." It struck a cord with me for some reason.
God I hate the death penalty.
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2 comments:
I am sorry I missed the show. May I suggest reading Dennis Fritz's book "Journey Toward Justice". Dennis Fritz is the other innocent man in John Grisham's book, The Innocent Man. Dennis Fritz tells his story on the Debra Sue Carter Murder case in his book "Journey Toward Justice". I was so touched by his book I started a blog about the issues in his book, called Barbara's Journey Toward Justice. Please visit. His book changed my mind about the Death Penalty. visit.http://barbarasblogspot.blogspot.com
I came across your blog today. As a lifelong opponent of the death penalty and a public defender, it's great to know more recruits are coming to help fight with me on the front lines! And, yes, prosecutors are evil. :)
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