5.6.2011

Recently I have been paying attention to longer-form journalism, I'm been picking up Harper's, the New Yorker and the Atlantic. In this New Yorker for this week (May 9th) there happens to be a piece on the death penalty. "The Mitigator: Beating the Death Penalty," by Jeffrey Toobin, is markedly shorter than "Trial by Fire," weighing in at 7 pages, but they are significantly related, for obvious reasons. "The Mitigator" refers to Danalynn Recer, a Texas death-row defense attorney with an impressive record and a strong philosophical dedication to what she is doing. In a business where attorneys are notoriously "in it for the money," I am glad to meet such a strong character through this article. 

The characterization in this article is a bit curious when compared to the examples presented in class, it does not fit the standard of an anecdotal lede. The first three paragraphs establish the decline in number of people on death row and the number (national, then focusing on Texas and Harris County in particular) of people executed in the past years. After sentence upon sentence chock full of statistics, the audience gets a feel of the heavy, thick wall that death row defense attorneys face when they enter the courtroom. The numbers are somewhat against them. 

The opening is almost oppressive, who could stand against those numbers? Especially in the case of not guilty defendants... 

But then Toobin introduces Recer, the most prominent and successful defense attorney in Texas. The quote that he picks for her is quite perfect, demonstrating that this is not some fluffy, emotional story of one woman's fight against the judicial system, motivated by a family history of some sort. No, according to Recer "this is not some unknowable thing. This is not curing caner. We know how to do this. It is possible to persuade a jury to value someone's life."

(A logical woman, indeed.)

This type of introduction makes the character of Recer stand out all the more. In this case, an anecdotal lede would set an almost over-emotional tone to the piece, it would editorialize Recer as opposed to letting the reader form their own opinion of her, her organization (GRACE) and all that they do. 

Toobin now moves through a profile of Recer and GRACE, noting that the offices are in a somewhat ram-shack "compound" of houses and that Recer dresses "like a graduate student." She is no-fuss, no-muss (it that editorializing?)

In the story there are a bunch of other "characters," but I think that Recer seems the most prominent, she takes over most of the story just for who she is. 

So Recer is obviously fighting against the death penalty for a reason. Toobin presents a few, the first being that support for the death penalty has not gone down, 2/3 Americans still support it. There's also the system through which a death sentence in reached. There is the "guilt phase" where the prosecution must prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. After conviction, there is the "penalty phase" where it is determined whether or not the defendant should be executed. The process is long, drawn-out and unwieldy. An attorney that can navigated this rough terrain becomes invaluable. 

The article began with context, narrowing in scope down to Recer and then back out to this section that defines the death sentencing process. The explanation is punctuated by quote from various expert-type sources and interjections from Recer that basically prove that she knows what she's talking about, she knows what she's doing. Toobin keeps with the context, moving back to prosecutors styles in the 1980s, explaining where the current ecosystem comes from. 

When Toobin focuses back on Recer, he is profiling her. It's less about her personal childhood experiences and reads more like a resume, a rap sheet, a listing of her qualifications. But not like there's something to prove. Like everything else about Recer, these a just things she did. No sense that Recer or the author are trying to brag. It's also a profile of GRACE, Recer's company/organization, as the author chronicles its earliest days. 

7 pages, while not as long as "Trial by Fire" or "Alone Together," is actually quite long. I had to take a few breaks. My long-form journalism stamina is building up, though (:

-GG