Documentaries
The distressing subject of the incarceration of young people is explored in Children Who Kill (TVNZ 1, Tuesday, 8.40pm), an ITV documentary presented by Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid.
In the US, juvenile offenders have received life without parole, but in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that such sentences are unconstitutional, meaning that murderers can have their sentences re-examined.
The ruling, however, is not popular with victims’ families. Reid meets Maddie Clifton’s mother and sister, who are fighting to keep her killer in
prison. The eight-year-old was murdered in 1998 by 14-yearold Joshua Phillips and her mother, Sheila, tells Reid “should he ever be released from prison, I pray I shall no longer be on this earth”.
Reid also meets Phillips in prison and discusses his early life, the murder and the possibility of being paroled. Later, she attends the hearing to find out if a judge will grant him his freedom.
Extinct or Alive (Animal Planet, Sky 076, Saturday, 9.30pm) will be a far cheerier prospect, even if the aptlynamed Forrest Galante doesn’t find a Formosan clouded leopard in Taiwan or a Tasmanian tiger. The series begins in the Florida Everglades where Galante believes “black panther” sightings are really the Florida black wolf, believed to have been hunted to extinction in 1908.