Women in many prisons have cushy lives, certainly in the Western world; for women on America's death row life is anything but cushy, rather it is austere in the extreme. But some of them deserve nothing better.
This programme talks to a handful of these women. First up is convicted murderess Linda Carty about whom the usual lies are parroted uncritically including by her daughter Jovelle and Carty's new lawyer. The gang Carty recruited to kidnap her victim was actually four strong, not three; the prosecution's case was not ridiculous although her crime was insane; the state did not team up with the other accused to convict Carty simply on words. There was a great deal of physical evidence against Carty, and the reason the other defendants were offered plea bargains is because it was clear she was the ringleader, she had duped them into carrying out a robbery, and while they were prepared to use brutality against both a young mother and the men of the household, they were not interested in murder. It was Carty herself who smothered the victim with a plastic bag. All this is a matter of public record, and it is Carty's protestations of innocence that are ridiculous. She has now been on death row for well over a decade, although it remains to be seen if or when she will actually be executed.
Next up is Darlie Routier, whose story is even more bizarre than Carty's. We are shown archive footage, and we hear from police officers as well as Routier's family. We hear too from a woman who published a book about the case in which she affirmed Routier's conviction for the murder of her two sons, and then did an immediate about-face when she said some of the crime scene photos and a mysterious fingerprint proved there had indeed been an attacker with a knife who carried out this terrible, senseless crime.
Although we see and hear from Routier in this film, this is archive footage only; she did not participate on legal advice because her conviction was and at the time of writing still is being appealed. Bizarre and terrible though it may be, the physical evidence does indeed indicate that Routier murdered both her young sons while the baby and her husband were asleep upstairs, staged the crime scene, then inflicted knife wounds on herself before calling for assistance.
Andrea Hicks-Jackson murdered a police officer in cold blood; her death warrant was signed three times before her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Her tale is so sad you can almost hear the violins playing in the background. She suffered child abuse, got into an abusive relationship, became a drug addict, and at the time she shot this poor guy five times she was so far out of her head she couldn't remember what had happened, although she does know why she shot him, she had been raped before, and thought he was going to rape her too. Tell it to the jury, ho. Oh, you did, and they didn't buy it? Shucks.
The most shocking case discussed in this film, from the perspective of justice, is that of Sabrina Butler, who at the age of 17 was charged with the murder of her baby son. Butler - now Butler-Porter - became the youngest ever black female to be sent to death row. It is commonplace in capital cases for the convicted felon to blame the lawyer, but the one Butler had came nowhere near the Strickland Standard; he presented no evidence at all, including her. Surely in view of the nature of the case she should have testified?
This is a story with a happy ending though; her new lawyer secured a retrial wherein it was revealed that this was an enormous miscarriage, indeed a travesty of justice. She appears herein as a free woman and has since married a man who is worthy of her.
The final death row denizen herein is Frances Newton, who was executed in September 2005 for the 1987 murder of her family; she is an entirely different kettle of fish from Sabrina Butler, and her legal team do a great job of pleading her case, but they make no mention of the insurance policy she took out on herself, her husband and her daughter shortly before the crime, forging Alton Newton's signature in the process!
This documentary includes reconstructions, and is a fair effort save for the extremely slanted view it takes of four women, one of whom deserved to die, and one, probably two more, who deserve to join her.
This programme talks to a handful of these women. First up is convicted murderess Linda Carty about whom the usual lies are parroted uncritically including by her daughter Jovelle and Carty's new lawyer. The gang Carty recruited to kidnap her victim was actually four strong, not three; the prosecution's case was not ridiculous although her crime was insane; the state did not team up with the other accused to convict Carty simply on words. There was a great deal of physical evidence against Carty, and the reason the other defendants were offered plea bargains is because it was clear she was the ringleader, she had duped them into carrying out a robbery, and while they were prepared to use brutality against both a young mother and the men of the household, they were not interested in murder. It was Carty herself who smothered the victim with a plastic bag. All this is a matter of public record, and it is Carty's protestations of innocence that are ridiculous. She has now been on death row for well over a decade, although it remains to be seen if or when she will actually be executed.
Next up is Darlie Routier, whose story is even more bizarre than Carty's. We are shown archive footage, and we hear from police officers as well as Routier's family. We hear too from a woman who published a book about the case in which she affirmed Routier's conviction for the murder of her two sons, and then did an immediate about-face when she said some of the crime scene photos and a mysterious fingerprint proved there had indeed been an attacker with a knife who carried out this terrible, senseless crime.
Although we see and hear from Routier in this film, this is archive footage only; she did not participate on legal advice because her conviction was and at the time of writing still is being appealed. Bizarre and terrible though it may be, the physical evidence does indeed indicate that Routier murdered both her young sons while the baby and her husband were asleep upstairs, staged the crime scene, then inflicted knife wounds on herself before calling for assistance.
Andrea Hicks-Jackson murdered a police officer in cold blood; her death warrant was signed three times before her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Her tale is so sad you can almost hear the violins playing in the background. She suffered child abuse, got into an abusive relationship, became a drug addict, and at the time she shot this poor guy five times she was so far out of her head she couldn't remember what had happened, although she does know why she shot him, she had been raped before, and thought he was going to rape her too. Tell it to the jury, ho. Oh, you did, and they didn't buy it? Shucks.
The most shocking case discussed in this film, from the perspective of justice, is that of Sabrina Butler, who at the age of 17 was charged with the murder of her baby son. Butler - now Butler-Porter - became the youngest ever black female to be sent to death row. It is commonplace in capital cases for the convicted felon to blame the lawyer, but the one Butler had came nowhere near the Strickland Standard; he presented no evidence at all, including her. Surely in view of the nature of the case she should have testified?
This is a story with a happy ending though; her new lawyer secured a retrial wherein it was revealed that this was an enormous miscarriage, indeed a travesty of justice. She appears herein as a free woman and has since married a man who is worthy of her.
The final death row denizen herein is Frances Newton, who was executed in September 2005 for the 1987 murder of her family; she is an entirely different kettle of fish from Sabrina Butler, and her legal team do a great job of pleading her case, but they make no mention of the insurance policy she took out on herself, her husband and her daughter shortly before the crime, forging Alton Newton's signature in the process!
This documentary includes reconstructions, and is a fair effort save for the extremely slanted view it takes of four women, one of whom deserved to die, and one, probably two more, who deserve to join her.
