Troy Davis & Clint Eastwood’s True Crime

Georgia executed Troy Davis tonight, as his supporters claimed he was innocent of the murder for which he was executed. Davis was convicted of shooting and killing a young police officer who intervened in an altercation involving a homeless man and one of Davis’s friends. In the years since the 1989 crime, several witnesses who testified at trial have recanted their identification of Davis, and other witnesses have come forward to claim that someone else did the shooting. People from around the world fought to prevent the execution because of the questions about Davis’s guilt. Yesterday, the Georgia pardons board denied clemency, but through today, Davis’s attorneys were requesting the opportunity to have Davis take a lie detector test.

Clint Eastwood True Crime

With the discovery of a number of innocent people on death row in recent years, there have also been questions about the guilt of some people who were executed. A number of media sources, including The New Yorker, raised questions about whether Texas executed an innocent man when it executed Cameron Todd Willingham. That case was based on questionable scientific evidence and has been prominent in the news because the governor who oversaw the execution, Rick Perry, is now running for president. At one point there was a commission that was reviewing the case, but the governor’s office instituted changes that limited the inquiry into the case.

A number of movies focus on the death penalty and executions, perhaps because the time leading up to an execution permits a large amount of drama on the screen. One movie that focused on questions about the innocence of a death row inmate is True Crime (1999). That movie, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, focused on a journalist covering an upcoming execution who eventually comes to believe the condemned is innocent. The movie did not do well commercially or critically, but it has some good moments.

{Contains spoilers, so stop reading here if you do not want to know about the ending of True Crime!}

Most of the movie is fairly traditional, so I understand why most critics and viewers did not get too excited about the movie. But if True Crime happens to be on television and it is near the end, I will watch it every time. The coda to the film, like the coda of the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and unlike the coda of Wyatt Earp (1994) (discussed previously), is quite beautiful and exceeds everything else in the film.

The movie follows its somewhat predictable route of having newspaper writer Clint Eastwood racing to try to stop the execution with the newly discovered evidence of innocence. The camera flashes between Eastwood and the execution as it begins. We see the lethal injection begin, and then the phone rings. The warden rushes to stop the execution but the injection has already started. The condemned is unconscious when they pull out the needle. But is he dead or alive?

Most movies would let us know right then what happened, with a tragic ending or a feel-good rescue. Instead, the beautiful coda to the film then begins. It is Christmas, and we see the grumpy Eastwood doing some Christmas shopping, exchanging some conversation with the sales person, where we learn that good things have happened to the character’s career. As Eastwood leaves the store, he looks across the way and sees the formerly condemned man, alive with his family. The two acknowledge each other across the way without words, showing respect for each other, and then go on with their lives. Diana Krall sings the haunting “Why Should I Care” and the movie ends. Below is the song’s video, which includes scenes from True Crime.

Unlike most films, and even the rest of True Crime, the coda is so subtle and unusual that it grabs your attention. Like the jazz song that plays, it conveys something complex, revealing more than words. I wish more movies had at least a few minutes of such intelligence.

A clip of the ending used to be on YouTube but it is no longer available, so below is the trailer for the film. Overall, although the movie is not great, it is a decent movie and worth renting at least just to watch the full ending.

But sometimes life does not come out like in the movies, as Tim Robbins’s character discovered while trying to make a death penalty movie in The Player (1992). Tonight, for Troy Davis, there was no Clint Eastwood rescue.

What do you think about Eastwood’s True Crime? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    First Use of Electric Chair & Eric Church’s “Lightning”

    On August 6 in 1890, the State of New York executed William Kemmler in the nation’s first use of the electric chair. As explained in Richard Moran’s Executioner’s Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair, as New York prepared to execute William Kemmler, corporate interests and profit motives affected the debate about the execution method.

    Edison vs. Westinghouse

    Electric chair

    George Westinghouse, who was working to make alternating current the U.S. standard for distributing electricity into homes, supported Kemmler in his appeals. Meanwhile, Thomas Edison, who was working to make direct current the standard, was an advocate for the electric chair.

    Edison hoped that once people saw the use of the electric chair, they would realize that Westinghouse’s AC current was dangerous and adopt his DC current. As part of his campaign, Edison even showed how electricity could kill an elephant. Edison’s promotion helped lead to the state using AC current for the execution.

    But in the long term, Edison did not win the DC-AC debate.  Today we use AC current in our homes.

    Kemmler’s Execution

    Kemmler had been sentenced to death for killing his common law wife with a hatchet.  After officials strapped him into the chair, the electricity was applied for several seconds.  During that time, Kemmler strained against the leather straps.

    When attending doctors thought Kemmler was dead, the warden had the electricity turned off. But Kemmler’s body continued to twitch, causing observers to faint.

    After doctors confirmed Kemmler was still breathing, the executioner sent 2,000 volts through Kemmler’s body.  Kemmler’s mouth foamed and blood vessels ruptured.  Witnesses smelled burning flesh as Kemmler’s body caught fire.

    After the electricity ceased, Kemmler’s body went limp.  Doctors confirmed that this time Kemmler was dead. Following the execution, about twenty newspapers in New York called for a repeal of the law that allowed execution by electrocution.

    Debates about the method of execution will continue as long as the U.S. is in the minority of countries in the world that maintain the death penalty. Recently, news stories have focused on problems with the chemicals used in lethal injection.

    Eric Church’s “Lightening”

    A slang term for being killed in the electric chair is “riding the lightning.” Country singer Eric Church incorporated the reference in his song, “Lightning,” about a death row inmate.

    There is something about the imminence of death that makes a death row inmate’s perspective compelling for a country song. Reportedly, this death penalty song earned Church his recording contract.

    Church’s song does not take a position for or against the death penalty.  But it focuses on the often overlooked families of both the condemned and the victim.

    I like the version of the song used in the video more than the version from his debut album, Sinners Like Me (2006). The video version changes the sound of the inmate’s voice at the end in a way that the album version does not, using an old microphone sound to convey a timeless voice from beyond the grave. It’s a good and haunting song and video.

    Yeah, tonight I ride the lightning
    To my final restin’ place.

    One aspect of the video, however, is somewhat inaccurate. The condemned in the video is a white man executed in Texas where the victim appears to be African-American. Although Texas leads the country in executions, that racial combination is exceedingly rare.

    In 2011, Texas executed Lee Taylor for murdering an African-American inmate while serving a life sentence. That was only the second time out of almost 500 executions during the modern death penalty era (since 1976) that Texas executed a white person for killing a black person. The rarity is not limited to Texas, as a number of studies from various states show that one is more likely to get the death penalty for killing a white person than for killing a person of any other race.

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    Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty: Steve Earle’s Over Yonder

    Lethal Injection Fish eye

    Today, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill passed by the state legislature abolishing the death penalty in the state. He also commuted the death sentences of the fifteen Illinois inmates on death row to life in prison. The law takes effect July 1 and will make Illinois the sixteenth state without the death penalty. Illinois also joins other states that have abolished the death penalty in the last several years, including New Mexico and New Jersey. Connecticut, Maryland, and Montana currently are considering abolishing the death penalty.

    Gov. Quinn explained: “”Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it. . . . With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case.”

    Gov. Quinn showed courage in signing the bill, as it is usually easier for politicians to maintain the status quo. Too often politicians use death penalty support as a political issue to play on people’s natural emotions to want murderers killed like in the movies. But in thinking about the death penalty as a criminal justice issue, Gov. Quinn recognized that the death penalty causes too many problems that a logical society should not tolerate. Plus, because maintaining the death penalty is more costly than life in prison, Gov. Quinn reasoned that “the enormous sums expended by the state in maintaining a death penalty system would be better spent on preventing crime and assisting victims’ families in overcoming pain and grief.” More needs to be done to prevent crime and help those victims harmed by crime, and the death penalty is merely a distraction from the real issues.

    Chimesfreedom previously discussed two of Steve Earle’s death penalty songs, so now is a good time to discuss another one. “Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song)” is from his outstanding album, Transcendental Blues. While “Ellis Unit One” is in the voice of a prison guard, “Over Yonder” is like “Billy Austin,” in the voice of a death row inmate. Unlike “Billy Austin,” though, “Over Yonder” is about a real person, and it shows in the song.

    Steve Earle catalogs many of the problems with the death penalty in his earlier “Billy Austin,” such as the racial and economic discrimination inherent in the punishment. But in “Over Yonder,” perhaps because he was writing about a real person, Earle tries to convey what a human being would feel like preparing to be executed.

    Give my radio to Johnson
    Thibodeaux can have my fan
    Send my Bible home to Mama
    Call her every now and then.

    The real subject of the song, Jonathan Nobles, corresponded with Steve Earle for ten years, and the two met and spent several days together talking in the visiting area at Ellis Unit One before Nobles was executed on October 7, 1998 in Texas. Nobles was convicted of killing two women while he was under the influence of drugs in 1986. When he first went to death row, he was a trouble-maker. But as time passed, Nobles became a Catholic and worked to turn his life around. He fasted on his last day and requested Holy Communion for his last meal.

    When Earle visited Nobles, they spent a lot of time talking about issues where they shared common ground, such as love of music, their times spent behind bars, their use of drugs, and their recovery from addiction. Steve Earle later wrote an essay about their time together and witnessing Nobles being killed by lethal injection. In Earle’s essay, he concluded that because Nobles had changed so much, society could have learned about rehabilitation from Nobles, which is especially important considering the large number of people in U.S. prisons.

    In the song, Earle does not condemn those who executed Nobles, he just tells the story. And he does not argue the inmate is innocent, he just reminds us that he is human.

    The world’ll turn around without me
    The sun’ll come up in the east
    Shinin’ down on all of them that hate me
    I hope my goin’ brings ’em peace.

    I am going over yonder
    Where no ghost can follow me
    There’s another place beyond here
    Where I’ll be free I believe.

    Just as importantly, Earle reminds us that we are human. Because, as has been noted, the death penalty is more about who we are as a society than about the handful of people executed. Gov. Quinn today chose for the state of Illinois to be a little more wiser and more humane.

    Bonus Illinois Death Penalty Information: The Chicago Tribune recently did a study of the state’s capital punishment system. The paper found “at least 46 inmates sent to death row in cases where prosecutors used jailhouse informants to convict or condemn the defendants. The investigation also found at least 33 death row inmates had been represented at trial by an attorney who had been disbarred or suspended; at least 35 African-American inmates on death row who had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury; and about half of the nearly 300 capital cases had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.”

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    Will Gov. Quinn Sign the Death Penalty Bill?

    Yesterday, the Illinois Legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty in that state. In order for the bill to become law, the governor must sign it. The bill now sits on Governor Pat Quinn’s desk, and he has said that he does not yet know what he will do.

    Lethal Injection ChamberIllinois has been a leader in the death penalty debate in recent years, so it will be interesting to see if the governor has the courage to accept the role in abolishing the death penalty. After several Illinois death row inmates were found to be innocent in the 1990s, then-Gov. George Ryan ordered a commission to review the criminal justice system and he ultimately commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois’s death row. The results from the commission, and studies by other states inspired by Illinois, in effect, found that there are so many flaws in the criminal justice system, that we can never be sure that we will not execute an innocent person.

    Fifteen states and the District of Columbia do not have the death penalty, and there has been a strong worldwide trend for decades to get rid of the death penalty. Yet, when we hear about a violent crime, like the recent tragic shootings in Arizona, our first reaction is to reach for the lethal injection needle. That quest for revenge is normal and human, but it is also normal and human to act out of rational thought instead of anger. And rational thought and experience tell us that the death penalty is more expensive than life in prison, ineffective, racist, inaccurate, and discriminates against the poor.

    Steve Earle touches on several of these themes in his excellent song, “Billy Austin.” The stark tale is narrated by a death row inmate who is part Native American. He does not claim to be innocent, and he describes committing a murder during a filling station robbery. The song then addresses the trial, referencing the poor representation often given to those charged with capital crimes. Earle seems to be telling us that the death penalty is not given based on the worst crimes, it is given based on what happens in a courtroom.

    But my trial was over quickly
    And then the long hard wait began
    Court appointed lawyer
    Couldn’t look me in the eye
    He just stood up and closed his briefcase
    When they sentenced me to die

    The narrator then describes the wait on death row, touching on the racism in the system.

    I ain’t about to tell you
    That I don’t deserve to die
    But there’s twenty-seven men here
    Mostly black, brown and poor
    Most of em are guilty
    Who are you to say for sure?

    And the song ends with another question.

    Could you take that long walk with me
    Knowing hell is waitin’ there
    Could you pull that switch yourself sir
    With a sure and steady hand
    Could you still tell yourself
    That you’re better than I am.

    And those are the questions that face Gov. Quinn. If he does not sign the bill, he will be the one pulling the switch on everyone executed in Illinois from this day forward. And that is a heavy responsibility to bear. Because the death penalty ultimately is not about the person being killed, it is about who we are.

    Bonus Governors’ Dilemmas in Other States: In the past week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen granted clemency to men on death row. Meanwhile, also in the last week, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter granted a posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, who was executed in 1936, because evidence now shows Arridy was innocent.

    Bonus Discussion of Another Steve Earle Song on the Death PenaltyJustice Stevens and Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One.”

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