Death Row (2012)

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843894/

This documentary series is a companion piece to Werner Herzog’s 2011 film Into the Abyss and is part of his death row project. The series is in four parts, each part focusing on one person on death row and each section paints a portrait of the human behind the crime, the crime itself and the justice system. Herzog divulges the fact he is opposed to the death penalty immediately, he ‘respectfully disagrees’ with it, but this does not mean what he has created is a biased piece of filmmaking. He is a master documentarian and never lets his personal opinions dominate the piece. As with Into the Abyss Herzog allows the people and their stories to play out for themselves so that the audience can make up their own mind about what is right and what is wrong.
The first portrait is that of James Barnes who is on death row in Florida. We hear about the horrific crime from a detective and this is juxtaposed with the vulnerable man we see Herzog interviewing, the complexities of the situation are immediately apparent and summed up by Herzog “a monstrous crime but he doesn’t seem like a monster”. As we learn more details we see beautiful landscape shots of water and birds, the latter a recurring motif throughout the series as we see images of flocks of birds flying in the sky, evoking the inmates dreams and desires. We see the gruesome photos of one of the crimes Barnes committed, which he admits to, the murder referred to as burning bed due to the nature of how he tried to destroy evidence. A detective discusses the generic profile of a serial killer, an arsonist who likes to harm animals, it seems clichéd but Barnes fits the bill. This first instalment portrays a man on death row who admits the crimes he has committed and yet the abuse he may have suffered from his father and his redemptive nature allow us to feel for him.
The second portrait is set in Texas and takes a look at Hank Skinner who has been on death row for 17 years. We hear how he was within 20 minutes of being killed and how he was “looking at death”, but his lawyer managed to get it withdrawn at the last minute. We hear about the death house team and the transportation to the death house, Skinner himself having a wicked sense of humour but profoundly noting that the ‘death team’ are the serial killers. The film crew take the same trip, filming beautiful landscapes in wide angle as the vehicle moves. We hear from a journalist the details of the triple murder Skinner supposedly committed, he states to this day that he is innocent. Skinner is a mesmerising character, one who references Herzog’s film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) and a Twilight Zone episode. This second instalment introduces a very different perspective on death row, one where a perhaps innocent man has suffered for 17 years, with dates of execution set and then withdrawn. The point is not that he may be innocent but is more a comment on the system in place, is it right even if he did commit the crime?
Joseph Garcia and George Rivas are the focus of the third portrait. Also in Texas, they are two of the infamous Texas 7 who were part of an elaborate prison break which resulted in the death of a police officer. We hear of a previous event that Garcia was involved in which landed him in prison to start with, an event that could have happened to any of us, a fight about a girl that got out of control. The fascinating thing about all these stories is the fact that we hear from unreliable narrators, never truly knowing what really happened, just having to come to our own conclusions from the information presented to us, just like a jury would. We also hear about the military precision planning that Rivas did in order to prevent anyone from being hurt during the break out, only to find out it was him who shot the policeman. These men are multifaceted, and it is that element of the human being that seems to intrigue Herzog.
It is not only men on death row though, Linda Carty is the subject of the fourth part and her story is perhaps the most confusing and difficult to come to a conclusion about, a fitting end to the series. She claims her innocence and that she worked for the DEA, whereas others tell a story of a manipulative woman who was desperate for a child. We hear how she had practically no defence at her trial, and that if her lawyer had spoken to a key witness she would not have been on death row, regardless of whether she was guilty or not. The state failed to give her a proper trial and the system failed. All the subjects have no date set for their executions as of the beginning of 2012.
Whatever your beliefs about the death penalty, this series will give you plenty to consider and different levels to explore, each case so dramatically different. For those that have seen Into the Abyss, this series is very much the same formula, with almost identical exploratory shots of the death gurney and static mid shots of the ‘monsters’ on death row as Herzog chats to them off camera. This would appear to be a criticism, but it is not. Each story is so different from the last that the films never feel repetitive, even if the introduction is the same for each, and watched together as one long film, as I did, just enhances the depth and complexities of the contentious subject matter that Herzog is exploring.
As with his previous films, Herzog’s narration is perfection. He states he “doesn’t have to like” the criminal immediately to their face, and probes family members, encouraging one to elaborate on a dream where she was visited by god; Herzog says “please explain, that’s what I want to hear”. There are typically Herzogian moments with plenty of animals and as inmate Hank Skinner has a tendency to go off on a tangent, Herzog’s narration interrupts one of these tangents with that fact and summarises for us what Skinner is rambling about. The filmmaker reveals that he found one of his subject matter, Joseph Garcia, whilst interviewing Michael Perry for Abyss, and from that comment we can see the story behind this series, Herzog stumbled upon a wealth of fascinating people and stories, each one all the more haunting for being real life. Herzog clearly doesn’t get tired of this realm and if you were fascinated by Abyss or the subject matter of death row presented here then you certainly won’t get tired of this monstrously delightful series.