Caryl Chessman Movies

This well-wrought, 45-minute documentary by director John Jacobs contains footage of death row inmate Caryl Chessman, sentenced to death in January 1948 because he was convicted of being the "red light bandit." The bandit got that name because he would put a flashing red light on top of his car to stop motorists and then he would rob them. Chessman later recanted his confession which he says was due to police brutality. When the "red light bandit" robbed people in their cars he would sometimes abduct a woman from the car and rape her. Under the "little Lindbergh" law in California, anyone guilty of an abduction involving bodily harm gets the death penalty. (That law was later repealed.) In this documentary, the mother of one of the "red light bandit's" victims is interviewed, along with the prosecutor in his case, the policeman who arrested Chessman, Chessman's lawyer and a few other people. Chessman was executed in the gas chamber a little more than sixty days after this documentary was released, in spite of a world-wide appeal to spare him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A&E debates one of the most controversial issues of law enforcement in American Justice: Death Penalty. In the 1960s, the death penalty was declared unconstitutional because of its inherent inequalities and randomness. A decade later, the Supreme Court reinstated the punishment beginning a societal argument that still rages on. A balanced view of the death penalty is presented with experts on both sides. The political and religious ramifications are introduced through interviews. So-called "Red Light Bandit" Caryl Chessman represents the personal side of the death penalty. His fight for freedom ended with his execution in the 1960s, after a prolonged court battle in California that attracted international attention and triggered widespread vigorous protests against capital punishment. He was the last person to die before the practice was forbidden. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide