CNN's new, original series, "Death Row Stories," premieres Sunday night. Tonight, it previews with a Google+ Hangout. Click the link to join in the discussion. The Google+ Hangout begins at 6:00 pm EST, 5:00 pm CST.
"Talk with us: America's death penalty under scrutiny," is by Thom Patterson at CNN.
CNN's Ashleigh Banfield will join Executive Producers Alex Gibney and Brad Hebert and other special guests to discuss the legal issues brought up in "Death Row Stories" in a special Google Hangout at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday. You can join the conversation by sharing questions in the comments below. For more, watch "Death Row Stories," a CNN Original Series, at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday. Follow us at facebook.com/cnn or Twitter @CNNorigSeries using #DeathRowStories
And, here's the beginning:
What does the United States have in common with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia? Answer: the death penalty.
Together, the four nations killed 1,052 prisoners in 2012, accounting for 82% of the world's confirmed executions that year, according to Amnesty International. The world's most populous nation, China, won't release its execution stats.
State-sanctioned killing is a divisive issue for many reasons, not the least of which is an imperfect justice system. "Upwards of 10% of all death row prisoners are later exonerated for the crimes," writes author and historian Thomas Cahill. But as New York Law School Professor Robert Blecker writes, society kills some of its criminals intentionally "because they deserve it."
This is a topic worth discussing. That's why we're hosting a CNN Google Hangout video conversation about this issue with CNN's Ashleigh Banfield and top legal experts right here on this page at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The Nation posts, "CNN Launches Important New Series vs. Death Penalty in USA," by Greg Mitchell. Here's an extended excerpt:
CNN has just announced an upcoming eight-part original series starting this Sunday on the death penalty in America, with award-winning, and tireless, documentary film maker Alex Gibney and some guy named Robert Redford as executive producers, plus Susan Sarandon (let's not forget her role as Sister Helen Prejean in the great Dead Man Walking) as narrator.
Death Row Stories already boasts a full web site up and key details here. It will, they vow, "call into question various beliefs surrounding America's justice system and the death penalty."
That sounds like a good thing, and echoes my two books on the subject, including this recent ebook, Dead Reckoning.
Gibney promises, “The series provides stark examples of the struggle between the powerful and the powerless. The stakes—life or death—couldn’t be higher.”
Each show will spotlight one particular controversial case with guilt and innocence at stake.
Related posts are in the journalism and the webcast category indexes.
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