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FOURTEEN DAYS IN MAY The documentary “Fourteen Days in May?made by Panorama-BBC in 1987, is a bias discussion on the issue of capital punishment. The documentary follows death-row inmate Edward Earl Johnson on his last few days alive as he struggles to prove his innocence as be released, and using several subjective techniques attempts to bias its audience against capital punishment. African-American Johnson was convicted in 1979 for the murder of a white town martial, and the attempted rape of a 60 yr old woman. The documentary uses methods such as exposing only the innocent side of Johnson, showing emotive material, lighting/sound and timeframe to create an atmosphere to bias its audience. Throughout the documentary, the audience is manipulated against capital punishment through painting Johnson’s character as that of a hard done-by innocent victim. In every scene Johnson appears in he speaks in a calm, controlled tone which when combined with the fact that he is on death row forces the audience to associate him with one whom has given up hope and dreams, and has fallen into a state of depression and inner-frustration. This is point is further expanded on by Johnson: “I feel helpless, although I want to make plans and dream I feel like I won’t be ever able to do none of these things? The documentary encourages the audience empathize with him and as they aren’t told until the conclusion of the movie whether or not he is released, it puts the audience into suspense, hoping he will not be executed, and allowing them to grow closer to him throughout the length of the documentary.
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