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Thread: CNN partners with Gibney, Redford for “Death Row Stories”

  1. #11
    Member Member dawnymarieeee's Avatar
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    Hi - I too watched the same documentary on Mr. Elmore - to say he was an anomaly of the system is putting it lightly - he showed incredible grace considering his situation - at least it had a happy ending -

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Tonight on CNN's Death Row Stories at 9pm and 12amET

    Tonight's DEATH ROW STORIES focuses on a case in Sacramento, CA. In December 1981, a home invasion turned bloody, leaving an elderly man dead and his wife in critical condition. Two career criminals were quickly identified. But the wife of one culprit soon fingered a most unusual mastermind: Gloria Killian, a former law student with no criminal record. Killian was charged with capital murder, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sent to prison in 1986.

    Killian's case seemed lost doomed until Joyce Ride, the mother of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, became intrigued by her case and helped bring attention to the irregularities.

    http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/20...pm-and-12amet/
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  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Joe D'Ambrosio trial featured on CNN's 'Death Row Stories

    The 1989 Cleveland trial of Joe D'Ambrosio (D'Ambrosio thread here) will be featured on the episode of "Death Row Stories" premiering at 9 p.m. Sunday, March 23.

    D'Ambrosio, of North Royalton, was convicted of the 1988 murder of 19-year-old Anthony Klann of Cleveland. Klann's body was found floating in Doan Brook in Cleveland's Rockefeller Park, which follows Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. D'Ambrosio, an Army veteran, was sentenced to death on Feb. 23, 1989, in what was likely the shortest capital case in state history.

    D'Ambrosio was on death row for more than 10 years when a lawyer-turned-priest, Father Neil Kookoothe, began investigating the case. D'Ambrosio and Kookoothe are among those interviewed for the "Death Row Stories" episode, which is titled "Blood & Water."

    Also interviewed in producer-director Steve Rivo's report is Chris Longenecker, Klann's roommate. He describes being raped by a man whom the defense believes may have committed the murder.

    A federal judge overturned D'Ambrosio's conviction in 2006, ruling that prosecutors withheld evidence that might have exonerated him at trial. He was released from prison in 2009 after 21 years.

    Prosecutors appealed, but in August, 2011, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld U.S. District Court Judge Kate O'Malley's ruling forbidding D'Ambrosio's reprosecution. The Ohio Attorney General then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but, in January 2012, the High Court refused to hear the state's appeal.

    Robert Redford's Sundance Productions is one of the producing partners responsible for "Death Row Stories." Executive producers include Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney, and Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon narrates each episode.

    http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/ind...w_stories.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Worth the read.

    CNN's death-row-optional death-row series

    Debra J. Saunders

    Actor-turned-producer Robert Redford boasts that his new CNN series, "Death Row Stories," is about "about the search for justice and truth." That's odd, because the series has aired three episodes, and they're all about victims of prosecutorial abuse. So far, nobody's really guilty. The second episode features a woman who never spent a night on death row.

    From what I've seen, they should have named the series, narrated by anti-death-penalty activist Susan Sarandon, "Death Row Propaganda."

    Episode two, the website says, is about Gloria Killian, who was "charged with capital murder, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sent to prison in 1986." That's misleading. Killian wasn't tried for capital murder. After she was convicted for her role in a 1981 home-invasion murder in Sacramento, she was sentenced to 32 years to life. Later, a federal court overturned her conviction because prosecutors had withheld evidence.

    Why make an episode for a death-row series about a woman not sentenced to death? "She was threatened with the death penalty," executive producer Brad Hebert replied.

    Any guilty people in your series? Three out of eight episodes, Hebert answered. On further questioning, he posited that his staff members are "torn" on the guilt of one, although they agree he did not get a fair trial. Another was convicted in military court after he was acquitted in civilian court.

    Only Nathan Dunlap, Colorado's "Chuck E. Cheese killer," who shot and killed four workers, is presented as guilty and "remorseless," if severely bipolar. But wait - Gov. John Hickenlooper postponed Dunlap's execution indefinitely.

    Director Steve Rivo thinks Dunlap got a fair trial. He added that even death penalty supporters agree capital punishment is "not really a deterrent."

    I don't agree. It deterred Clarence Ray Allen, the last inmate executed in California - in 2006. Allen was in prison for the murder of his son's 17-year-old girlfriend when he ordered the death of eight witnesses. Three people died. He got the death penalty, and now Allen cannot re-offend.

    The series' first episode is about an intern who dug up evidence that exonerated South Carolina's Edward Lee Elmore. New York Law School Professor Robert Blecker, a supporter of capital punishment, thought it was a solid episode as Elmore "is an example of someone who never should have been condemned to death."

    The problem is that producers are stuck in a narrative: Intern or astronaut's mother or priest finds evidence that prevents the execution of an innocent inmate.

    There's another narrative - and in my experience, it's more prevalent: Convicted killer finds easily duped advocates who ignore evidence and smear prosecutors.

    When convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales was scheduled for execution in 2006, his attorneys released a statement in which a witness accused prosecutors of coercing her to give false testimony at trial. The affidavit turned out to be a forgery. Still, Morales' lawyers won. They got a federal judge to stay his execution in a constitutional challenge to California's lethal-injection protocol. There hasn't been execution here since. There may be no safer place for a convicted killer than on California's Death Row. That's California's real death-row story.

    Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders

    http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunde...es-5345404.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Talk about completely one sided...there all a bunch of anti's. Glad I didn't watch. "Death Row Propaganda"...ROTFL...what a great title.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #16
    Weidmann1939
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    On the bright side only a handful of people actually watch CNN.

  7. #17
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Florida death-row saga like 'Twilight Zone'



    The strange saga of James Duckett, the former Mascotte police officer convicted in 1988 of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee's murder, makes an unusually compelling hour on "Death Row Stories."

    Ivy Meeropol directed and produced the program, which premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday on CNN.

    She cited time constraints for not mentioning that Duckett is the grandfather of missing Trenton Duckett. Meeropol, who lived briefly in Orlando in the 1990s, doesn't say -- in the film or an interview -- if she believes James Duckett, who is imprisoned at Starke, is guilty or innocent.

    "We worked really hard to strike that balance and challenge the audience to think about putting someone on death row and not being entirely confident they had a fair trial or the evidence was strong enough," Meeropol said. "There's other evidence we present that's quite incriminating. By not leading the audience to the answer, we made a stronger case, which is the overarching theme of the series. Let's look at how we put people on death row."

    The hour examines how Duckett's legal case was shabbily presented in Lake County. A defense attorney blew it, a witness recanted, and leads weren't followed. The participation of Marshall Frank, a retired homicide detective from Miami, becomes central.

    "He is struck by Duckett’s story," Meeropol said. "From what I gleaned, he got caught up in the idea there is an innocent guy on death row. He got caught up in evidence you could take apart, and he ran with it."

    He ran straight to Edna Buchanan, the Miami Herald crime reporter who wrote a series on Duckett -- a series she would later regret. After meeting Duckett, Frank became convinced that he was guilty.

    Buchanan delivers the hour's most memorable line about Florida justice: "Sometimes it's like 'The Twilight Zone,' and Rod Serling is the governor."

    "She's a real character," Meeropol said of Buchanan. "She's very colorful. She's angry. She added this whole other level. People get an inside view. Marshall Frank goes to her and convinces her it's a great story. She's devastated. It's painful for her that this is the last story she filed at her beloved Miami Herald."

    The story affects people on many levels. Frank enjoyed being Duckett's champion. "No one gets off death row without someone championing his case," Meeropol said. "On the other side, there are so many victims when something like this happens. I did speak to James Duckett's ex-wife. She didn't want to go through the whole story again in a public way. His whole family is victims."

    Meeropol also talked to Teresa's mother and a key witness, who recanted her recantation in the hour.

    "Marshall Frank says toward the end of the program, even though he's come to the conclusion that he believes Duckett is guilty, he says look at the hard evidence," Meeropol said. "From a legal point of view, he shouldn't have been convicted."

    Meeropol is a grandchild of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 for conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. She did a documentary about her family called "Heir to an Execution." Do those family connections guide her project selections?

    "This episode couldn't be further from my grandparents' story," she said. "The only connection is there is someone on death row and they were on death row. That said, it informs my approach of wanting to humanize all the subjects. Especially someone who's on death row, who has been dehumanized, whether he's guilty or not."

    Meeropol, who worked at the Sapphire Supper Club and Orlando Weekly when she was in Orlando, stressed that this "Death Row Stories" is different from other episodes.

    "It's interesting I was given this assignment, given my background," she said. "I was challenged to do a balanced show. You don't know whether he's guilty or innocent. Other stories have happy endings, exonerations. This one is more complicated. I hope it spurs more discussion about how we put people on death row."

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...0,6822736.post
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death Row Stories

    Airs: July 12 at 10:00 PT/10:00 ET "Mother vs. Texas"

    CNN has the second season premiere of Death Row Stories, the documentary TV show that examines capital murder cases, at 10:00. The show attempts to unravel the truth behind capital murder cases, executive produced by Alex Gibney and Robert Redford and narrated by Susan Sarandon, these stories call into question various beliefs surrounding America's justice system and the death penalty.

    http://www.timesonline.com/entertain...990f8c8f1.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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