On September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of those attacks, vengeance overtook some Americans, leading to a number of misguided acts of violence. On September 15, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas-station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was murdered by a man who assumed that because Singh wore a turban, he was Muslim and somehow responsible for the attacks. Sodhi, a Sikh, became the first post-9/11 hate-crime victim in the United States.
Sodhi and his family emigrated from a small village in the Punjab region of India in 1985, after the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh guards led to anti-Sikh violence. They describe themselves as having come to the United States in search of religious liberty.
A Dream in Doubt is an immigrant's story of survival as a wave of deadly hate crimes terrorize Sikh communities across the country. The film is told through the eyes of Balbir's brother, Rana Singh Sodhi. Acting as the spokesman for his family and community, Rana seeks vindication for his brother's murder and other incidents of hate crimes against Sikhs through education and awareness, all the while determined to uphold his belief in the American values of freedom, self-reliance, and equality.
>> Visit ITVS Community Cinema for information on upcoming screenings in the Bay Area.
>> Visit Independent Lens for more information on the film, nationwide screenings, and educational resources.
>> A Dream in Doubt will premiere Tuesday, May 20, 2008 on PBS. Check local listings.
Race to Execution was a poignant film about the devastating effects racial prejudice plays in determining the fate of those accused of capital crimes in America. The stories of Madison Hobley and Robert Tarver left me haunted by the unscrupulous nature of the way their cases were tried, and distressed by the frequency of how similar cases are handled across the country.
One disturbing scene that lingered with me long after the film was Madison's personal account of the verbal and physical abuse he endured at the hands of police. At one point he says: "They said they didn't care who did it. As far as they were concerned, I was a nigger and I did it and they had me. One officer stood behind me and held me while the other officer hit me in the stomach. And then one of them got a plastic typewriter cover and put it over my head."
A clip from Juror Number Six explored the role the media plays in producing and reinforcing stereotypical images of criminals. This piece resonated most with the audience of mainly reporters and journalism students at the San Francisco screening last Thursday, and fostered a lively discussion about the responsibility journalists have in curbing this trend. Panelist and filmmaker Rachel Lyon cited the O.J. Simpson trial as a tipping point of media sensationalism of race and murder. Co-panelist Audrey Herron shared startling anecdotes of how she's seen negative media representations manifested in our legal system. And a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter in the audience summed up the evening by applauding the films as being some of the best counter-narratives to biased reporting that he's seen.
I walked away from this documentary with a better understanding of how the death penalty is used disproportionately against African-Americans, the poor, and the powerless. I believe this film will leave viewers longing for true justice on behalf of the marginalized in our society.
Race to Execution, a film by Rachel Lyon, is a compelling investigation of America's death penalty system that probes how race discrimination and bias infect our capital punishment system. Following two death row inmates—Madison Hobley of Chicago, Illinois and Robert Tarver of Russell County, Alabama—the film interweaves their stories together with groundbreaking scholarship, and reveals that the race of the victim and the accused deeply influence the legal process. It examines how a crime scene is investigated, the deployment of police resources, the interrogation and arrest of major suspects, how media portrays the crime, and ultimately, jury selection and sentencing. The film suggests that beyond DNA and beyond innocence, the open secret of our capital punishment system is, indeed, a matter of race.
The number of states that have instituted moratoriums on the death penalty in recent years demonstrates that lawmakers are acknowledging that the capital punishment system is deeply flawed and is in need of assessment and reform. According to The Death Penalty Information Center's (DPIC) 2008 fact sheet, there are currently 36 states that exercise capital punishment, and 14 that do not. It also notes a correlation between race discrimination among victims and defendants:
"Recent studies on race revealed that in 96% of the states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both."
An article in the Washington Post highlights the significance of the landmark decision New Jersey lawmakers made in December 2007 when they abolished the death penalty. And according to the Baltimore Sun, this month Maryland's legislature established a commission to re-examine the death penalty in its state. (DPIC's website has comprehensive listings of recent legislative activity on capital punishment nationwide.)
Juror Number Six, a short film that explores the impact of traditional and new media representations of race and crime on sentencing for minority defendants in the criminal justice system, is a continuation of the film Race to Execution. This new piece considers both the potential and the dangers of new Internet technologies in combating racism and creating a fairer justice system.
San Francisco State University's Department of Journalism will host a screening of Race to Execution and Juror Number Six tonight:
Thursday, March 27, 2008
6:30 Reception with light refreshments
7:00pm Screening
8:15pm Discussion and Q&A with expert panelists
SF State Downtown Campus
Westfield San Francisco Centre
835 Market Street, 6th Floor, Rm 609
San Francisco, CA 94103
Guest panelists:
Claire Cooper, Bay Area freelance journalist and former Sacramento Bee Legal Affairs writer
Aundré Herron, Staff Attorney, California Appellate Project
Rachel Lyon, Director/Producer, Race to Execution
Moderated by Dori Maynard, President and CEO of the Maynard Institute
Co-sponsored by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, USC Annenberg's Institute for Justice and Journalism, Amnesty International Western Regional Office & SFSU's Center for Integration & Improvement of Journalism.
In partnership with DePaul University Center for Justice in Capital Cases, Lioness Media Arts, Inc., and Active Voice.