COLLOQUIUM

... as featured in

Pictures at an Execution
[discussion began November 8, 1999]

Dissenting in the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Provenzano v. Moore (September 24, 1999, upholding Florida's use of the electric chair), Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr. appended several color pictures of Allen Lee Davis taken after his July 8, 1999 execution. According to Justice Shaw, the pictures show a "ghastly" and "unquestionably violent" scene depicting a man who "for all all appearances...was brutally tortured to death by the citizens of Florida." Several days after the decision, the Supreme Court of Florida, following standard practice, issued the Provenzano judgments - including the Davis photos (1, 2, 3) - on its Web site. Should there be some legal limit on the sort of photographs that a judge can properly include in a judicial decision? Should courts be allowed to post sensational photographs on the Internet? Send your comments using the form below or e-mail JURIST@law.pitt.edu.

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• [C. Weinkam, Maryland] In all the comments I have read there is no mention of the victim. This individual is losing his life because there was a victim. When gruesome photos of the perpetrator of a vicious crime are made public why not also include pictures of the viciousness of the crime he is being executed for. Maybe there will be less sympathy for the guilty.

• [Willey Huff, Florida] The answer is a resounding yes. It is about time that judges recognize that they are first human beings before they became jurists.

  When I saw the photographs of the executed man in the Miami Herald, I was amazed. I teach correctional officers who actually work for the state of Florida. One of my students then retrieved the photograph form the internet; it was even more graphic than the newspaper. It truly gave me pause to think about the use of the electric chair. It give us all a chance to think about how we put people to death. The more difficult question as to whether we ought to be executing other human beings is not at issue.

• [Stefan Kirchner, law student, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, GERMANY] If we do like it in the actual case or not, judges must always have the ability to give judgements without any respect to public oopinion or whatsoever. Therefore, judges must have the right to give judgements the way they think it is necessary. I think that if someone is appointed or elected as a judge, she or he knows on her or his own, which material to include and which not by her or his own common sense.

• [David Taylor, Barrister, UNITED KINGDOM) I fail to understand how the photographs (which I have just seen) have any relevance to either the conviction or the sentence. Their sole purpose appears to be to sensationalise the execution. There should be no need to legislate to prevent publication of pictures of this sort. Judges should know better.

• [G.F. Duerig, law student, Santa Clara University, California] Judges are, whether directly elected or appointed after hearings, our society's representatives. If we can't trust these men and women to decide when and how to communicate, why have we selected them to be our law keepers? The pictures of recently-executed prisoners are unsettling, as well they should be. Prisoners are killed in the name of the "People." It is far too easy to ignore the results of our own actions in selecting tough judges, encouraging our legislatures to pass laws with mandatory sentences and to vote for "law and order" district attorneys. If we, as a society and as "the People," don't look at the consequences of the punishment we demand we will never re-evaluate, consider whether this is what we really want or seek improved penalties. As long as "the People" punish, "the People" should be made aware of the results of the murders and other crimes committed in their names. If we are comfortable with the results, we should continue. If we are not comfort! able, then we should demand change. But if we remain intentionally ignorant or are never made aware of the consequences, how can we make educated decisions about the future?

• [Hon. Jeannine Turgeon, Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania] As a judge, I have included diagrams but never photographs. I suppose, as our medium of communications improves, attaching actual photographs is a valid consideration, however usually they are part of the court record (Exhibits) and I therefore question the necessity [of including them]. For example, in one case in particular, we had photographs of a deceased newborn who drowned after being placed in the bottom of a port-a-potty by the mother. We also have gruesome photographs of murders, victims burned beyond recognition and other horrible photographs of crimes. These photos are not something I would have even imagined attaching to the Opinion. The issue of appropriateness of such photographs being placed by the judiciary knowingly on the Internet is a new one. You've provided me food for thought on an issue I never even knew was an issue. Thank you.

• [David McComb, Criminal Lawyers' Association, CANADA] If that's what's being done in the name of the public, then the public SHOULD know. Needless to say, state-sanctioned electrocutions should be STOPPED NOW - as should the death penalty itself!

• [Paul Joseph, NSU Law Center, Florida] I'm sure that pictures of aborted fetuses will follow next. Yet, I would not be quick to censor a judge's opinion. This is really an issue of professionalism. The judge must ask himself or herself whether the photo is necessary to the legal issue of the opinion. I think we must give judges a lot of latitude.

• [Steve Levine, Judge, 11th Circuit of Florida] Judges need the freedom to discuss issues in an open and uncontrolled forum. No opinion should be limited by any arbitrary and unenforceable rules. Is a picture more offensive than emotionally descriptive words? Judges are reserved by nature, and abuse of the right to include pictures in an opinion will likely be rare.

• [Thomas Cavenagh, North Central College, Illinois] The death penalty is carried out in the name of the citizens of the state exercising it. To that extent, it seems to me to be entirely appropriate for them to see their handiwork. While some will be titilated by these photographs and much of what can be found on the internet, many will find in them an occasion for reflection on both the death penalty and the methods employed to perform it.

The discussion goes on...

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