Written by Michelle Ashford, Glen Morgan, and James Wong
Directed by Kim Manners
Airdate: February 5, 1990
Guest Stars: Josh Rickman (Ronnie); Rosie Perez (Rosie); Troy Mallory (Reggie)
In one of its bleakest episodes, 21 Jump Street focused on the death penalty. Young criminal Ronnie is on death row for murdering a cop (and member of the Jump Street Unit - Reggie). The character of Ronnie appeared in the two-part season 2 episode "Besieged" as an aspiring gangster. Since his imprisonment, Hanson regularly visits Ronnie who requests that he attend his execution.
We get flashbacks to the crime spree Ronnie and his girlfriend Rosie embarked on. We get scenes of his interactions with the prison chaplain - and his hopes of getting a reprieve. The actual sequence depicting the lethal injection is about as bleak as it gets. The episode ends with a visibly shaken Hanson staring into the camera.
The script avoided being overtly for or against the death penalty, but one walks away feeling the entire process is barbaric and ghastly. Debates raged about the death penalty when I was in school, but it seems most American are fine with it these days. A bold episode at this late juncture in the series.
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