Legal Study

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)

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)

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)

Childhood sexual abuse affects all social and economic groups. Psychiatrists, social workers, and law enforcement officials explain how the pattern of abuse is frequently spread throughout the family; why children can be manipulated into silent acceptance of abuse; the signs of sexual abuse and how and to whom they should be reported; the reliability of children as witnesses; teaching prevention skills to children; and under what circumstances treatment of sex abusers can be effective. From The Doctor Is In. A Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center production. (26 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)

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)

Determined to achieve Basque independence, the group known as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA has battled Spain's security forces for decades. This program provides a historical overview of ETA's origins and activities. Using rarely seen archival clips and images, the film covers Spanish Civil War events that helped give birth to ETA, the group's official formation in 1959, its assassination and kidnapping methods, its attacks on Spanish police, and Franco's frequent crackdowns against it. Students will also learn about the death of Franco, subsequent developments in Spanish politics, short-lived ETA ceasefires beginning in the 1990s, and the 2004 Madrid bombings initially blamed on ETA. Distributed under license from BBC Worldwide. (27 minutes)

In May 1987, Edward Johnson, a young African-American found guilty of murder and attempted rape, was executed at Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi. This program, set in the days immediately preceding and following Johnson's death in the gas chamber, focuses on the legal mechanism for execution and the intense ethical debate surrounding it. Johnson is interviewed at length. Questions arising from that interview explore such issues as whether the death penalty is ever justified, whether it is disproportionately used against minorities, and whether legal avenues of appeal are sufficient, or overly-weighted in favor of criminals. A BBC Production. (88 minutes)

Nationwide, 70 percent of state and federal prisoners are illiterate. This means that many offenders convicted of murder cannot even spell it. Filmed on location at New Jersey State Prison, this powerful documentary spotlights a flourishing inmate-run literacy program called L.I.F.E., Learning Is For Everyone. It also asks to what degree illiteracy and undiagnosed learning disabilities contribute to a drift toward delinquency and crime. Interviews with L.I.F.E. participants and footage of one-on-one classes, a tutor-training seminar, and the Prose and Cons Poetry Workshop illustrate the program's positive impact. An HBO Production. (40 minutes)

Is a humane and painless execution method possible, and if so, would death penalty proponents support its use? Or is pain the whole idea? Examining what many see as the cruelty of current procedures, this program searches for a viable alternative. Experts in the death business-retired executioners, toxicologists, biomechanics specialists, and others-explain disturbing flaws in the use of electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, and the gas chamber. Whether or not physicians should take part in executions is also discussed. The film presents a low-cost killing method that would induce euphoria-but this horrifies a prominent death penalty lobbyist because offenders wouldn't suffer. A BBC Production. (50 minutes)

Law enforcement officers are on the front line every day. Research has shown that continual exposure to combat-like situations can produce mental and physical breakdowns-and that training in mental preparation significantly increases the chance of surviving a serious confrontation and its after-effects. This valuable program presents the FBI's Law Enforcement for Safety and Survival Program, designed to channel and control the human stress response through concentrated mental and physical preparation. (53 minutes)

The laws of the criminal justice system are primarily framed by the Constitution, which sets the standards of due process. In this program, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges explain the differences between misdemeanors and felonies, the various degrees of crimes, and the elements of a crime. Investigation procedures in the gathering of evidence and statements are discussed. Legal experts and police officers clearly illustrate such concepts as 5th Amendment rights, Miranda warnings, the stop and frisk" rule, search warrants, and the "knock and announce" rule. Probable cause and arrest procedures are also demonstrated. A Cambridge Educational Production. (30 minutes)"

The Constitution provides for an impartial criminal justice system. In this 2-part series, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and police officers move through the entire process of jurisprudence, from investigation and arrest procedures to courtroom proceedings and sentencing. Differences applicable to juvenile law are made clear. These videos provide an excellent resource for political science or legal studies courses. A Cambridge Educational Production. 2-part series, 28-30 minutes each.