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9 JIJIS 113 (2009)
These are Their Stories: How the Portrayal of Capital Punishment on Law &(and) Order can Help Abolitionists Argue against the Death Penalty

handle is hein.journals/jijis9 and id is 117 raw text is: THESE ARE THEIR STORIES: HOW THE PORTRAYAL OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ON LAW& ORDER CAN HELP ABOLITIONISTS ARGUE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY Christopher Hill1 Abstract Law & Order addresses many issues related to the criminal justice system, including several episodes where capital punishment was the central criminal justice focus. Capital punishment is most often dramatized on television through stories of innocent people charged or convicted with capital crimes. Law & Order is an exception to this narrow portrayal of the death penalty. This paper will explore the portrayal of capital punishment in Law & Order through a review of several episodes that address death penalty issues not often discussed. Through these episodes, it will be shown how abolitionists can use popular culture to make arguments against capital punishment. 3 aw & Order is an amazingly popular television program.2 Several spin-offs have . . 3 |been created from this ripped from the headlines drama. One of the reasons *the show is so popular is that it is unashamedly based on stories that are current and newsworthy.4 The original series has been in first run episodes since September 1990.5 The show follows a crime, usually a homicide, from investigation to prosecution.6 It is set in New York City.7 During the nine years New York had the death penalty from 1995 until 2004, Law & Order focused on capital punishment several times. Often, the only stories of capital punishment on television are those portraying an innocent person who may be executed. There are, however, many more nuances to the death penalty that make it a controversial topic. Law & Order speaks to some of the more controversial issues in capital punishment. For example, given that some of the main characters in Law & Order are prosecutors who have discretion to charge a suspect with a crime, the death penalty is often used on Law & Order as a threat in order to obtain confessions and convictions. Another complex but often overlooked issue in capital punishment that was addressed on Law & Order is the psychological effect on those who witness an execution. The show also focused on the controversy over the lethal injection process, among others. While Law & Order episodes are fictional portrayals, they highlight important issues in the death penalty debate and provide a platform for abolitionists to argue against the death penalty. Statement of Purpose This survey began with the hypothesis that most television programs do not address all of the issues surrounding capital punishment. When television programs have storylines about the death penalty, they most often address the innocent person State Strategies Coordinator, ACLU Capital Punishment Project. The opinions expressed in this paper are not endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union or the ACLU Capital Punishment Project 2 NBC, Law & Order, http://www.nbc.com/Law-and-Order/about (last visited April 19, 2009). The spin-offs are Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. TNT, Law & Order, http://www.tnt.tv/stones/storyl?oid=602 (last visited April 19, 2009). Law & Order: Prescription for Death (NBC television broadcast Sept. 13, 1990). 6 id. 7 NBC, Law & Order, http://www.nbc.com/Lawand_Order/about/ (last visited April 19, 2009). Direct correspondence to chill @aclu. org @ 2009 by the author, published here by permission The Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies Vol 9

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