Criminal Justice

Entering a crucible of racial, political, and legal issues, this program explores America's national debate over affirmative action. Viewers will receive a detailed look at the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case which confirmed the legality of race-based academic admission criteria, as well as a behind-the-scenes examination of hiring policies at the Ford Motor Company. Observations from students, professors, legal plaintiffs, and activists shed light on the debate's central concepts-including the economic legacy of slavery and the use of quotas and preferences. In addition, former Secretary of State Colin Powell describes the role affirmative action has played in his career. Original title: The First Black Man in the White House. (50 minutes)

Raped, beaten, and sodomized in her own bed by a young assailant, 76-year-old Florence Holway turned the tables on her attacker and escaped. John LaForest was apprehended and convicted, but a technicality led to a plea bargain-accepted without Holway's consent-undercutting the potential severity of his sentence. This riveting program chronicles Holway's traumatic ordeal and her fight to right what she calls a gross miscarriage of justice. In her own words, Holway, age 89, calmly but forcefully tells about the attack, her outrage toward the criminal justice system, how she took her case to the media, her success in causing tougher rape legislation to be enacted, and her ongoing efforts to keep LaForest behind bars. An HBO Production. (73 minutes)

Drawing comparisons to the Tuskegee syphilis atrocities, this program describes experiments performed at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison over a period of decades, during which inmates were subjected to frequently dangerous medical procedures without their informed consent. The video explores connections between major pharmaceutical companies, an indigent and semi-literate prison population, and an ambitious dermatologist named Dr. Albert Kligman who organized and conducted tests involving nerve damage, unnecessary skin grafts, and drug-induced psychoses. The result is a provocative look at disturbing aspects of America's penal system. (43 minutes)

Can America fight an enemy within its borders while preserving civil liberties? This program examines the critical role of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces in the hunt for al Qaeda sleeper cells, and how that role has created new challenges for the agency. Detailing the FBI's discovery and capture of Detroit and Buffalo cells, its response to foreign intelligence, domestic surveillance difficulties, and the intricate workings and results of FBI/CIA cooperation, this program depicts an American intelligence community struggling to adapt to the complexities of the war on terror. Original BBCW broadcast title: America-Hunt for the Sleeper Cells. (41 minutes)

What is the right way to interrogate victims, witnesses, and suspects? And, of equal instructive value, what is the wrong way? This program investigates both, as trained British actors apply the principles of cognitive interviewing, conversation management, and nonverbal communication in a series of unscripted Q-and-A sessions related to a purse-snatching. Segments dramatizing the incident from the victim's and witness's points of view are also included. In addition, film clips of a totally separate mugging are included-ideal for use as a witness/interrogator practice exercise. (62 minutes)

This program with Bill Moyers examines the crisis within the American court system. In many parts of the country, funding for already burdened and backlogged courts is being reduced. And public defenders and legal aid attorneys are in short supply, leaving the poor without adequate or timely representation. Yet, few politicians have stepped forward with solutions. In this program, a panel of judges discuss a variety of potential remedies for this national crisis. (60 minutes)

Angela Macdougall is a wife, mother, and S.W.A.T. team sniper. This program explores what it is like to balance a career in a risky, high-visibility, male-dominated occupation with marriage and motherhood. Angie and her husband, Chris, talk about the demands of law enforcement-the need for objectivity, the fight against cynicism, the skepticism of fellow officers, the emphasis on physical fitness-and the sacrifices they have both made to accommodate her ten-and-a-half years on the police force. Despite the statistically high rate of divorce among police officers, Angie and Chris believe they have beaten the odds. (25 minutes)

In this gritty program, filmed cinema verite-style, five small-time African-American dealers living in Baltimore openly talk about slingin' drugs" in the uncensored language of the streets. Clips of drug use, violence, and arrests interspersed with onscreen statistics provide contexts for interviewer questions about life and death in Mobtown's drug culture. Will these young men end up in a luxury car, a police cruiser, or an ambulance? Even they don't know. Some content may be objectionable. (45 minutes)"

From the physics of bullet trajectories to the grim details of human decay, forensic science is a challenging discipline for any student to enter. This program ushers viewers into the prestigious Forensic Science department at the University of Central Lancashire in Great Britain. Tests and coursework involve ballistics experiments used to solve a shotgun shooting case; an introduction to blood splatter analysis at the school's mock crime scene facility; and an ordeal that every first-year forensics school scholar, regardless of his or her personal goals and sensitivities, is required to undergo-the Death and Decomposition lecture. Viewer discretion is advised. (23 minutes)

At San Ysidro, 45,000 vehicles per day enter the U.S. from Mexico. This ABC News program focuses on the high-stakes struggle between smugglers and customs officials as each group tries to outwit the other. Rudy Camacho, southwest border coordinator for the U.S. Customs Service and actor in the movie Traffic, spells out the details of interdicting the drug flow while a former drug trafficker explains how to evade detection by drug-sniffing dogs, deceive state-of-the-art X-ray machines, and even bribe customs officials. Then, 2,000 miles away, three teens in one of the wealthiest, most privileged counties in America talk about how easy it can be to buy drugs. (22 minutes)

This program, filmed at the Central Correctional Institution in South Carolina, examines the failure of current U.S. correctional methods, and the expense of that failure in human terms. Interviews with inmates and staff capture emotions ranging from rage to hopelessness, as they discuss the racism and violence indigenous to prison life. The overall picture is that a growing underclass is disproportionately punished under our current criminal justice system, and has little chance for rehabilitation. (30 minutes)

The Supreme Court's landmark decision that it is unconstitutional to execute people who are mentally retarded reverses decades of jurisprudence. In this program, ABC News correspondent John Donvan visits the ongoing legal battle that prompted the initial 1980 ruling, the case of Texas convict John Paul Penry. Argument rages not over Penry's guilt but what determines mental retardation. Commenting on the case are Joe Price, prosecutor in all of Penry's trials, and Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis. In the studio, Joshua Marquis, an Oregon district attorney, and Joanmarie Davoli, a defense attorney for eleven years who represented mentally impaired defendants in murder cases, debate one of today's most challenging issues. (22 minutes)

Criminal investigators must be able to analyze any type of crime scene, be it a criminal's abandoned car or the elegant surroundings of a manor house. This program follows crime scene studies undertaken in the renowned Forensic Science department at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. Viewers accompany first-year Police and Criminal Investigation students as they gather evidence from within and outside mock automobiles; attempt to solve an armed robbery of wealthy partygoers through lab analysis of blood, fabric, and glass shards; and confront several other realistic and often gory crime scenarios. Viewer discretion is advised. (23 minutes)

This controversial documentary traces the often brutal history of criminal punishment from the medieval era through today. Early lithographs show in shocking detail the excessive punishments applied in pre-modern times for minor crimes. We see how more humane attitudes toward punishment led to the construction of prisons. Featured in this program is the CCI penitentiary in South Carolina. There, prison officials discuss the difficulties involved in running a large penal institution. Prisoners and corrections officers provide insights into daily life at the prison and talk about the overall failure of current rehabilitation efforts. This is an excellent portrait of criminal punishment as it was, and where it stands today. (30 minutes)

The tools required to fight Internet-based offenses must constantly evolve and adapt. Unfortunately, so do the criminals. This program examines several forms of cyber-crime and their impact on law enforcement, national security, the corporate world, and society at large. Taking a global approach, the film presents interviews with American and European experts on cyber-terrorism, identity theft, child pornography, and other disturbing crimes. Frank Cilluffo, director of The George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute, focuses on the terrorism issue, while case studies shed light on recent high-tech assaults originating in Russia and China. (Portions in other languages with English subtitles, 55 minutes)