Fourteen Days in May (1988) dir. Paul Hamann

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann and originally shown on television by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1987. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder and imprisoned in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Johnson protested his innocence and claimed that his confession had been made under duress. He was executed in Mississippi s gas chamber on May 20, 1987. The documentary crew, given access to the prison warden, guards and chaplain and to Johnson and his family, filmed the last days of Johnson s life in detail. The documentary argues against the death penalty and maintains that capital punishment is disproportionately applied to AfricanAmericans convicted of crimes against whites. The program features attorney Clive Stafford Smith a noted advocate against capital punishment.