If you’ve been keeping up with current pop culture trends, you are well aware of Netflix’s new groundbreaking series "Making a Murderer."
The documentary follows the prosecution and wrongful conviction of Steven Avery, a man who served 18 years in prison for sexual assault until he was finally exonerated as a result of DNA testing. After pressing charges against his county for the lapse in due process that resulted in his wrongful incarceration, Steven Avery was tried and convicted for the murder of Teresa Halbach by the very same people that had locked him away 18 years before. The documentary highlights the timeliness of Avery’s arrest, in that it conveniently occurred after it was evinced that the prosecution had skipped vital steps in the judicial process. Avery is currently serving a life sentence without parole.
"Making a Murderer" instills its viewers with an intense sense of unease at how easily a man’s life can be turned upside down by powerful institutions with a vendetta and is an unpleasant reminder of how far detached we are from the judicial process. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, there have been more than 1,300 wrongful convictions in the United States since 1989. As disturbing as this number is, even more horrifying is the percentage of those unjustly executed in this country, which a recent study puts at an alarming 4.1%.
Netflix’s new series has brought attention to the incredibly critical, yet often ignored, responsibility Americans have to the judicial system. The laws used to put people in prison and, more importantly, the ones used to execute convicted felons, are of the people, by the people and for the people. We as Americans are responsible for every conviction and execution, righteous or wrongful, that occurs. "Making a Murderer" has painfully brought to light the undeniable but far too easily ignored fact that innocent people are convicted as a result of systems we put in place.
Using broadcast journalism, Netflix has inadvertently held our nation’s citizens accountable for their actions and has forced us to reconsider the role we play in determining people’s fates. In order to ensure that we do not lose our newly found sense of responsibility, I have a proposition: The United States should publicly televise all executions.
As one of 22 countries that employed the death penalty last year (accompanied by similarly reputable nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia), we must be held liable for the decision to take the lives of fellow citizens. In the past this has been nearly impossible, as execution viewing rooms are generally reserved for family and reporters, but broadcasting executions nationwide would take care of that problem. I would televise all other criminal cases as well, but that would almost certainly clog the airwaves.
It is far too easy to go about our everyday lives completely oblivious of the executions that we are each responsible for, and, in many ways, we are placing more trust in our government than we should be comfortable with. The ability to hold a life in one’s hands is perhaps the greatest responsibility a person can have and is one all American citizens share. If we continue to use the death penalty, executions should be televised, lest it be forgotten what we, as a nation, have decided to do.