Procedure 769: The Witnesses to an Execution

On 21 April 1992, Robert Alton Harris, who had been convicted for killing two sixteen-year-old boys, was put to death in the gas chamber of San Quentin state prison in California. It had been 25 years since a death sentence in California had been executed according to this procedure, technically known as 'procedure 769'. The execution was watched from behind a window by 49 witnesses. Filmmaker Jaap van Hoewijk made this film out of curiosity for these people: what drove them to attend an event of this kind and how did they experience it? In Procedure 769, eleven of the witnesses, both friends and enemies of the convict, give their account. Examples are Harris's brother Randall and his cousin and confidant Leon Harris, but also the parents and a sister of the victims. They all give a meticulous account of the events on that early morning in April 1992, but as the film progresses it becomes clear that they all, depending on their relationship to the assassin, have seen something different. This makes the film a disconcerting study of the functioning of human observation and memory. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)