Summary

The article “My Sons on Death Row” by Kevin O’Sullivan begins by presenting a new development in the US with regards to the death penalty. The Supreme Court is to decide whether executions can be televised. Some argue that seeing the executions will make people more averse to capital punishment. However, there are also people who claim that televising executions will transform killers into stars and viewers into twisted fans.

In the US there are 2,400 people waiting for Death Row, but people tend to forget to think of convicts as people, or about how capital punishment affects their families.

The article presents the case of Jacqueline Downs, the first woman in the US to have two sons on Death Row for separate crimes. Her eldest son, Ernest was found guilty for organising the killing of a bank official. Several years later, her son Bobby was found guilty for killing his wife.

Jacqueline knows that her sons are not a model of good conduct, but like every mother, she wanted the best for them....