Viola Davis, Julius Tennon – (ABC/Lorenzo Bevilaqua) (NEW YORK) — Tonight, ABC takes a closer look at the flaws in the American justice system by examining a number of death-row cases in the powerful new docu-series, The Last Defense.
The series was developed by Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s production company, JuVee Productions, among others, and the two serve as executive producers on the project. Their series, which highlights the death row cases of Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, tells its stories by returning to the scene of the crime, re-interviewing witnesses and going beyond the details of the case and its court proceedings.
Davis tells ABC Radio that this docu-series is extremely important because it helps to shine a light on cases that often don’t get a second look.
“We’re really seeing that there are voiceless, unheard, and unseen people out there — who don’t get a fair trial,” Davis says. “They just don’t, you know. We live in a justice system that is about affordable attorneys, public defenders who are overworked and underpaid, and there are people who fall under the cracks because of that.”
She continues, “And that needs to be exposed because, it’s like the famous saying says, It’s because I love America that I reserve the right to criticize it.'”
Her husband agrees and adds that taking a critical look at these two cases will hopefully lead to a larger conversation.
“We’ve always loved things about social justice and especially in the crimes space,” Tennon says. “Unfortunately, it’s always about somebody is untimely demise, but we always want to shine a light… then we see that there are potentially, cracks in the system and people do fall through.”
“So it could happen to any one of us,” he adds.
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