Virtue and vice: who will report on the failings of the American criminal justice system?(Symposium: Media, Justice, and the Law)

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
I. THE VIRTUES OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE REPORTING 
 
II. THE VICES OF CRIME REPORTING 
 
III. THE LIMITATIONS OF NEW MEDIA 
 
CONCLUSION 

INTRODUCTION

 
   Above the fold: 
 
   HUNTSVILLE, Texas--Texas executed [name of inmate or description of 
   inmate as a killer] on [day of week] for [brief description of 
   crime for which inmate was sentenced to death]. 
 
   "[Final statement of inmate, made from lethal injection gurney]," 
   [name of inmate] said. He was pronounced dead at [time], [number] 
   of minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow. 
 
   [Inmate's victim's family members' names] [and/or] [inmate's family 
   members' names] watched through a window. "[Comment on execution]" 
   they said / [they declined to speak to reporters] / [there was or 
   was not eye contact between inmate and victim's family members]. 
 
   [More detailed description of inmate's crime, perhaps explaining 
   aggravating circumstances such as prior crimes.] 
 
   [Whether [name of inmate] maintained his innocence / said the 
   killing was accidental.] 
 
   [Name of inmate] was the [ordinal number] person executed this year 
   in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state. 

Insert the name of the condemned man and some facts about the crime; add a paragraph quoting the victim's family; note any last-minute protestations of innocence or expressions of remorse on the part of the defendant; and update the execution tally. In a matter of grave national importance--the execution of Americans by this country's most notorious killing state, Texas (1)--this formulaic ritual constitutes American crime reporting. After a brief suspension during the United States Supreme Court's consideration of the constitutionality of lethal-injection procedures in Baze v. Rees, (2) Texas resumed executions in June 2008. (3) From that point until the end of the year, it executed eighteen people. (4) Each of the eighteen men killed by the state of Texas raised substantial questions about the fairness and validity of their convictions and death sentences: representation by ineffective trial counsel, mental illness, violations of international covenants, and failures by state and federal appellate courts to reach meritorious issues because of procedural bars. But such information has no place in the fill-in-the-blanks template employed by the newspapers providing coverage of the executions. Consider a few examples:

 
   HUNTSVILLE, Texas--Texas executed a condemned inmate on Thursday 
   for orchestrating and taking part in the robbery and killing of a 
   man in Amarillo 13 years ago. 
 
   "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," Larry 
   Donnell Davis said in his final statement, quoting from the Bible. 
   "It is finished." 
 
   The parents of Davis' victim watched through a window a few feet 
   from him but he never looked at them. He was pronounced dead at 
   6:19 p.m. CDT, eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow. 
 
   Davis, 40, had been out of prison less than four months when 
   authorities said he and several friends were involved in robbing an 
   acquaintance, Michael Barrow, 26, and killing him at Barrow's home. 
 
   Davis' execution was the fourth in Texas this year and the second 
   in as many weeks. Davis was among at least 15 condemned prisoners 
   with death dates in the coming months, including six in August. 
 
   Davis acknowledged he was at Barrow's home the day of the killing 
   and kicked the victim who had broken free of restraints on his 
   hands and feet. But he insisted in a recent interview with The 
   Associated Press he was not responsible for the fatal wounds. 
 
   "They finished him," he said of his friends, who accepted plea 
   deals for lesser sentences. "I don't mind being punished for 
   something I did--not for something I didn't do." 
 
   In a detailed confession to police, Davis said he tied Barrow's 
   hands, held him down while an accomplice stabbed him and handed his 
   accomplice the weapons, including an ice pick, a knife and a lead 
   pipe. (5) 
 
   HUNTSVILLE, Texas--Texas executed a former New York 
   City hair stylist with a long criminal record Thursday for the 
   robbery, rape and murder of an Army medic at her apartment near 
   Fort Hood. 
 
   "From Allah he came and from Allah he shall return," Denard Manns 
   said from the death chamber gurney. 
 
   Manns, 42, criticized or thanked various attorneys who had 
   represented him, expressed love to friends and said, "I'm ready for 
   the transition." He uttered what appeared to be a brief prayer 
   three times and was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the lethal 
   drugs began to flow. 
 
   Manns' appeals in the courts were exhausted and the Texas Board of 
   Pardons and Paroles, acting Wednesday on a petition filed by his 
   lawyer, refused to commute his sentence to life in prison. 
 
   Manns was convicted of raping and murdering 26-year-old Michelle 
   Robson in 1998. The former mural painter from New York City had 
   moved to Texas that year after being paroled after serving nearly 
   six years in prison for armed robbery--his second stint in jail for 
   the crime. 
 
   He maintained he had nothing to do with the death of Robson, who 
   lived with her husband a few doors down from where Manns was 
   staying with his half brother and cousin in Killeen, in central 
   Texas. 
 
   Asked last week if he knew who committed the murder, Manns told The 
   Associated Press from a tiny visiting cage outside death row: 
   "That's not for me to discuss. Police get paid to ask those 
   questions and find out. I would never tell them." 
 
   Prosecutors said DNA and fingerprint evidence implicated Manns, who 
   also was found with some of the slain woman's property. 
 
   Investigators believed Robson, from Newton, Iowa, at least 
   recognized her killer because there was no indication of a break-in 
   at the apartment where she lived with her husband, Clay 
   Wellenstein, also a soldier stationed at Fort Hood. He had gone 
   home for a Thanksgiving visit to his family in upstate New York 
   when he learned of his wife's slaying. 
 
   Robson was found dead in a bathtub, shot five times with a 
   .22-caliber pistol. 
 
   Manns' cousin, Eric Williams, owned such a pistol, found a bullet 
   on the floor in his room and turned the gun over to police after 
   learning of his neighbor's death with a similar weapon. Tests showed 
   at least one of the bullets recovered from the woman had been fired 
   from the gun. Tests also showed Manns' fingerprint on the weapon. 
   Other evidence showed Manns left a jacket belonging to Robson at 
   the home of a friend the day her body was discovered and that he 
   had a ring of Robson's. 
 
   Manns was arrested the following month and tried in 2002. 
 
   Manns was the 17th convicted killer executed this year in the 
   nation's most active death penalty state and the second in as many 
   days. Another three lethal injections are scheduled for next week 
   in Texas. (6) 
 
   HUNTSVILLE, Texas--Texas executed a man Wednesday who was convicted 
   of killing a woman and her child, while Mississippi put to death a 
   man who took part in the fatal beating of another man. 
 
   Derrick Sonnier shook his head "no" when asked if he had any final 
   statements. He was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. CDT, eight minutes 
   after the lethal dose was administered. 
 
   Sonnier was convicted of murdering Melody Flowers, 27, and her 
   2-year-old son, Patrick, in their Houston apartment in 1991. 
   Flowers was raped, stabbed, strangled and beaten with a hammer 
   until its handle broke. Her son was stabbed eight times. Her body 
   was dumped into a bathtub filled with water and the child's body 
   was tossed on top of her. 
 
   Sonnier, 40, maintained his innocence. He made a similar trip to 
   the death house seven weeks ago but was spared when the Texas Court 
   of Criminal Appeals stopped his scheduled punishment after lawyers 
   raised questions about the legality of the lethal injection 
   procedures. 
 
   That appeal subsequently was rejected, Sonnier's death date was 
   reset for Wednesday evening and his legal avenues to avoid 
   execution were exhausted.... (7) 

At a time when the attention of the citizens of Texas, and the whole nation, is most focused on Texas's death machine--as the act of execution occurs--the articles above, all from the Associated Press, constitute the near totality of information reported on these men and their cases. Nothing in these articles suggests that there was any reason not to kill these men. Almost entirely absent from the stories is any mention of the defense case or the defendant, other than a voyeuristic fascination with the condemned's last words. The above are examples of American crime reporting. They are succinct, superficial, and devoid of context.

There is also criminal justice reporting. Where crime reporting purports to answer the questions, "Who? What? When? and Where?," criminal justice reporting attempts to initiate conversation and debate about the far harder question of "Why?" Why is this man on death row? Why are people who kill a white person 400 to 500 percent more likely to receive the death penalty than people who kill a black person? (8) Why do courts seem more concerned with protecting a death verdict than ensuring that justice was done? Criminal justice reporting is the opposite of crime reporting. (9) Where crime reporting is salacious, criminal justice reporting is reasoned; where crime reporting ignores nuance, criminal justice reporting is full of complexity. Crime reporting appeals to a limited range of base emotions; criminal justice reporting elicits a far more complex emotional response, and, more importantly, it engages the intellect. Unfortunately, crime reporting increasingly dominates the American newspaper and criminal justice reporting has become an endangered species. The future of newspaper reporting on complex matters of crime and criminal justice is not in-depth investigative reporting, but superficial and callous treatment of complicated issues.