Friday, April 25, 2008

Interview with Robert Blecker, subject of the documentary Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead

By John P. Meyer

Interview with Robert Blecker

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I had a chance to chat with Professor Robert Blecker in Dallas on April 25, while he was in town for the USA Film Festival's premiere screening of the documentary Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead. (He's not thrilled about the title, by the way, but - as he states in the audio file - it's not his documentary.)

Filmmaker Ted Schillinger hooked up with Professor Blecker via a mutual professional acquaintance who knew they both had an interest in making a documentary about the death penalty and death row inmates. What resulted from their collaboration is - as one might expect - an edgy, thought-provoking piece which ends up centering on a convicted murderer named Daryl Holton. Mr. Holton - who shot to death his four children and was sentenced to be executed for the crime - turns out to be a witty, personable character with whom Blecker ends up conversing (by mail and in-person visits) a number of times before he's eventually put to death by the State of Tennessee. It's a punishment he (Daryl) fully agreed with.

At the end of the film, we find Professor Blecker in a kind of middle-ground no-man's land outside Riverbend prison where a group of death penalty abolitionists far outnumber the lone couple who stand with signs in support of Daryl's execution. But Blecker can't relate to these two, who seem confused by his distinction between executing someone in a painful fashion as opposed to a painless one (he would prefer that Daryl die without pain). So he (Blecker) ends up standing by himself between the two conceptual camps, awaiting the death announcement.

In our 17-minute interview you'll hear the following:

* As an illustration of Daryl's intelligence and scholarship, Blecker reveals that he (Daryl) may be one of only three men to have read (and apparently assimilated) the entire 2,100 pages of the Federal habeas treatments.

* Blecker's other most fascinating death row inmate is a fellow named Leon Brooks, aka "Itchy" - who's serving a life sentence for something Blecker thinks he didn't do - but, not to worry, he apparently actually did shoot 57 people when he was 19 yrs. old. (Blecker has written a screenplay about "Itchy," and is hopeful of getting it produced.)

* Blecker admits to finding the film's title "incomplete and viscerally repulsive."

* As a primer for interviewing death row inmates, Blecker states: "You can't fear - they sense that."

* He's written an essay, just published by Rutgers, called "But Did They Listen" - about proceedings of the New Jersey death penalty study commission before which he testified.

* Blecker refers to himself as a "retributivist."

* His 96-yr-old father still occasionally beats him at chess; Bobby Fisher did, too (on five occasions).

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