Death row on air

“Hi John, please have a seat”. John looked around nervously, not sure what to read into this situation. Men in black Suits were sitting around the table, Andrea the Advertising Director, was looking away, trying not to give up too much information.

John sat down and folded his hands in his lap. The frown on Andreas forehead worried him. “John, I am not sure you know why you are here. As you might know the TV Show ‘Bridesmaids wanted’ was unsuccessful. It was absolutely boring. There was no involvement from you or the audience. I know you can do better than this.”

John said nothing. He needed a minute to digest the information. He was the best TV Moderator in the country. He was fairly good looking, charming and convincing. Nothing like this ever happened. He always had the most views and likes in the TV business.

“Andrea, Do you mean no one liked the show? Well maybe it was just a S**** setting. Set up for failure!”

One of the black man in suits started talking. “Mr. Homes, you mind if I am calling you John? My name is Richard Old, I am the marketing advisor for this company. What we are saying is, that we need a show which is exiting. We need the audience to be involved from the beginning, their breath needs to be taken away, you understand?”

John nodded, understanding his job is on the line. He needed to put more effort into this. “What do you suggest?” , John asked. Andrea smiled “ Well we were thinking of a show about life or death”

“And how will that work? Are we going to kill people now or what?”

“Basically it would be the government who would be doing that for us. We are just recording and presenting it”

“What do you mean? Why would we do that?” Johns eyes were as wide as dinner plates now, his voice shaking.

“See, we talked to the Red Iron prison and they agreed. The people on death row will be ‘put to sleep’ live on TV unless we decide otherwise. That is where the audience comes into play. The audience is voting for the people to either live or die, depending on the personal stories of their past and severity of crime. “

“In what way will they die? Electric chair?”

“Yes as well as lethal injection. What do you say John? It would be the best show ever created, trust me”

“It is illegal, that is killing people. That is murder! Don’t count me in”

Another man in a black suit opened his filthy mouth “Mr. Homes. These people are on death row, they would die anyway! We would actually be giving them a chance to LIVE. They can make their case prior to the show and convince the audience.“

There was silence in the room. John stared blankly out of the glass windows, trying to give the words meaning and purpose. A few minutes, which seemed to be like a lifetime, passed.

He now nodded hesitantly. “Okay….Okay lets do it. Do we have a name for the show? And what about candidates, will I meet them before we go live?”

“ We were thinking about calling the show ‘Death row’....”

“No no no” John shook his head. “That would totally turn off the audience I can ensure you that. You said we give people a chance to explain themselves, to ask for forgiveness correct? It is about chances here. We will call it ‘Second chances’”

Andrea clapped her hands “ Great! Second chances it is. We go live next week. Tune in every Friday. The show will run for 2 hours at 10 pm, since it is not suitable to watch for children, I will get the appointments with the prisoners arranged. We will have 5 candidates”

John was shaking a bit less now but still had this heavy feeling in his stomach which seems to grow the more he thought about the show. He sighed and brushed his sweaty hair out of his face.

The next day John made his first step into a prison. It was surprisingly quiet but even more quiet in the death row block. One way or the other death was literally just around the corner.

He felt sick to his stomach. Who was going to live? How will people decide?

The officer opens several doors with a key card to get to the final corridor. He was a big man, his belly lapping over his belt. He was breathing heavily while walking. He was mumbling something like “These bastards, get a chance I just cannot believe it”

John said nothing

“Your first interview will be with a Sex Offender. He raped and stabbed a 13 year old girl and then dumped her into the bin, where she died of the injuries. You will be interviewing him in the cell, with one ward present. The camera team needs to film through the bars. Don’t make any physical contact, you understand?”

John nodded. His throat was closing up. Suddenly he cannot remember anything he wanted to ask this men. In the cell, was a middle aged man, maybe in his 40s. He had a very athletic physique, dark brown eyes and thick hair. Nothing like John imagined at all.

The man stood up and held out his hand, with the biggest grin on his face John has ever seen.

“Hello you must be Mr. Homes! I am Derrick. Derrick Beast“

„I am not supposed to touch you” John replied. He was surprised. There was this man standing in front of him., tall, polite with a friendly smile and yet so intimidating.

Both sat down. “So… ehm Derrick. How… ehm …how can you explain your actions? What made you do, what you did?”

Derick’s smile faded as quick as it came. “I see we are coming straight to the point. No small talk Jonny boy?”

John swore he had seen a something in his eyes. Something he couldn’t explain. Some kind of coldness and carelessness.

His gut was telling him, this man was a monster and he better not get to run around free.

“I cant deny what happened. I wish I could explain. I feel awful. I wish I could turn the clock back. I am a good guy I deserve the worst. But please, please don’t let me die. If I could make it up to the world I would. It was 20 years ago. I was a fool.” Tears now streaming down Derricks face. His attitude changed by 360 degrees. For the camera only!

John knew these tears were not real and a shudder rolled down his back.

He looked down at his questions, carefully prepared by his bosses. He really wanted to get out of here now, so he would just follow the protocol.

“Will you do it again?”

“No of course not! What I did, was awful.”

“What was your childhood like?”

“You see, when I was 10. My mom and I had to run and hide from my very abusive father. He would beat us up whenever he had the chance. My mom passed away when I was 15, got hit by a drunk driver. I am alone since then. I always wanted to become an architect but this dream will never come true.”

“If you had something to tell the girls family, what would it be?”

“I know I hurt you, I hurt your daughter and I am so so sorry! You have the right to kill me. But maybe you could show forgiveness. I know you wont forget but please forgive me”

“Thank you Derrick. We will see you on the show” John said briefly and signalled the officer to open the cell door.

John skin felt clammy. He does not have good feeling about this at all.

“You’re okay?” The warden asked him shortly. “Yes. I just need to take a breath”

“You know, its not you, who has to decide who lives or not. It is not in your hands”

“I know. That is the problem. “

He felt a little bit more prepared when he met the next candidate. Sarah Wilkins. She shot a man in the middle of the street during the middle of the day. She claimed it was self-defence and that he tried to attack her. Apparently he stalked her over a period of three months and also tried to break into her home. The court declined the excuse and charged her guilty with 1^st degree murder. She was not even 20 yet. She was crying while telling John everything.

And so was the next one, and the next one, and the next one.

The kind husband who stabbed his mother in law to death while she was sleeping.

The loving mother who shook her baby girl to death, because she did not stop crying.

And last but not least,  the quiet, shy high school kid who shot to death 10 of his classmates and two teachers of his school.

These people were still believing in their ability to show love and compassion. They still had  hope. They hoped the show will make them live. They hoped people will show mercy.

John was finally done interviewing. He was not feeling great. He felt like on death row himself. Tortured, about the unknown and what was going to happen.  

The following Friday the first show was about to get on. John watched from the side of the stage the audience. Big advertising was done for this show, as well as protests and riots by the relatives and friends of the victims.

Each person in the live audience had a remote control, where he ore she could either press L for live or D for die, C for Chair or I for lethal injection People from home can call the hotline and dial 1 for live and 2 for die, 3 for electric chair and 4 for lethal injection. The percentage of both extremes life and death will then be shown on a screen and whatever is higher will be completed.

All inmates will be presented on beginning of each show.  One inmate will be chosen by a raffle, then the video will be shown again and the decision will be made.

John anxiously started biting his lip while watching the audience. He was tense as hell, but knew he had to deliver a great show to keep his job.

“Good evening everyone” John screamed into the microphone. “I am John Homes and I will be moderating this show for you the coming 5 weeks. As you know, these people are close to dying but we will give them a fair chance to live and make it right again. WELCOME TO SECOND CHAAAANCES!”

The raffle began and John had to pull out the paper. He open the paper with shaky hands , tried to peek inside as if something could jump out of it and hurt him.

“our first candidate will be … drums please!... DERRICK BEAST!”

The audience applauded and time seemed to stop for a moment. John was deep in thoughts for himself now. Inside, he was sincerely hoping everyone would be voting for death, and for the electric chair. He hadn’t had kids for himself yet, and had no intention in having some, since he knew what could happen to them. The same thing Derrick Beast had done. It was a horrifying thought.

After the video of Derricks confession and apologies showed, the silence seemed unbearable. The percentage bars on the screen went up and down, up and down.

When it stopped, John had to take a second look and his heart must have skipped a beat.

Derrick broke out in tears and fell on his knees “Thank you, thank you, thank you”

The bars showed 75 percent live and, 25 percent die.

John could not believe his eyes. How can people let this monster live?

At backstage he congratulated Derrick and was about to get back on stage again when Derrick said the words John was afraid from the beginning. “ Next time I will be more careful”

John could do nothing about it. Everything was confirmed. Derrick the Beast was going to live. Hallelujah.

The next few weeks were not different either. People who did not deserve it lived. People who were right died.

John tried to talk to Andrea, hoping this would be over soon. “This is crazy. This guy Derrick in the first show, he was completely insane. Andrea I tell you, he is dangerous and he will do it again!”

“Shut up John! It is non of your business. The decisions are made by the audience not by us, we never had that many viewers before. Don’t ruin this for me!”.  

The last female standing was Sarah Wilkins. John deeply hoped she will survive this.

The audience decided for death, and electric chair. He saw Sarah’s eyeballs melt, her brain melt and her hands shook until the end. He will never be able to forget this picture. She was innocent, just acting for her self-defence. It wasn’t fair!

When he finally tried to close the show off a big discussion started to break out in the middle of the audience. The people were screaming the same thing over and over again “Death row, death row, death row” He did not understand at first who they have meant, because the show was finished and there were no more candidates left, until the police made their way through the crowd and showed their badges to John.

“Mr. John Homes? I hereby arrest you for first degree murder on five counts, with violation against the public. This is effective immediately. “

“Wha… Wha.. What is happening here. I did not kill anybody” Andrea turned up on the stage and grinned her so typical evil grin “Oh Johnny boy, yes you do. You killed 5 people . You have signed the document you don’t remember? Just so you know, me and the team have not signed anything. So it is all on you right now. Thank you for your service and delivering such a great show.”

“Andrea! What are you doing? I thought we do this show together. What is happening now??”

Andrea sighed heavily. “Oh boy… John, you will die right here right now. But I DO have an actual courtesy for you. We don’t usually do this so be wise.

YOU can choose the method of death”

John shook his head. He did not want to die. He did nothing wrong. Or did he?

“I thought we were friends….”

Yes but I like this show to be continued, so I had to make it more exiting, hahaha”

She pointed to the screen. It showed 51 percent wanted him to die, the other 50 percent wanted him to live. “Close call. What is your decision John?” she whispered in his ear, then walked away.

“Lethal injection!!”