Sentenced to Die: Capital Punishment and the Eighth Amendment

Winner of a CINE Golden Eagle award, this half-hour "examination" of capital punishment and the eighth amendment offers little to differentiate itself from a news piece on any number of true-crime shows. Separated into two parts, with an almost incoherent afterward designed to promote classroom discussion, the program looks at the sad case of Clarence Lee Brandley, a black man falsely accused of a vicious rape/murder in a small town in Texas and sentenced to die (after nearly a decade in prison, he was freed), and the tragic story of Dawn Garwin, a rape/murder victim whose killer was sentenced to death. Although commentary from prosecutors and public defenders are interspersed throughout both segments, the purported subject--capital punishment--gets almost less than cursory attention in the drawn-out true-crime stories which are the staple of free evening TV. A jumbled point-counterpoint series of soundbites tacked on to the end of the film only serves to further confuse audiences (at one point, one interviewee claims that more white men than black are sentenced and executed, while the next interviewee suggests just the opposite; this is not a point of debate, for pete's sake, it's a matter of fact, and should have been presented as such). While the program could conceivably stimulate discussion, this is nowhere near a top-notch title on capital punishment. Not recommended. Aud: H. (R. Pitman)