SOURCE: A review of Execution of Justice, in New York Magazine, Vol. 19, No. 12, 24 March 1986, p. 96.

In the following evaluation of the New York staging of Execution of Justice, Simon judges the play underwritten, overdirected, and overproduced.

Much as I would like to like Execution of Justice—because it deals with a gross miscarriage of justice, and one, furthermore, for which our glorious jury system and those twelve solid, ordinary, wonderful citizens and peers are largely to blame—it is hard to do so. Emily Mann, who put together and directed this docudrama, has underwritten and overdirected, so that much that should be in clear focus remains fuzzy, and much that should be simply stated and directed is gussied and gimmicked up into shrillness and garishness.

To be sure, the San Francisco trial of City Supervisor Dan White for the shooting of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk...