In "Execution of Justice", we have a young mother character who is never named. I find this character really interesting and stand out because she is anonymous. Most other characters- even the cop- can be connected to a specific person or group of people that are involved with the story. To me, this is odd because even though so much of the play is historically accurate, the Young Mother is new.
There are several options in my mind for who this Young Mother could be. First, this could be someone that represents the larger idea of society or the San Francisco community. Since Emily Mann was in San Francisco conducting interviews with people related to the Dan White trial, she more than likely ran into many people who had opinions on the trial, and who lived through the event.
Another possibility is that the young mother is the voice of Emily Mann herself. In an interview, Mann states that she was hugely pregnant while interviewing people in San Francisco. Being a young mother herself, the character could be her own opinions on the trial as she was developing the play. She also has a very interesting view on what it was like being pregnant during that time. The "homosexual hating" cop she interviewed with made comments about protecting women in relation to the LGBTQ+ community. Maybe she felt assured by this? or perhaps she was shocked at the sexist, and homophobic traces in that conversation.
Of course, trying to figure out what the source of this voice is also requires analyzing the importance of the Young Mother. She doesn't say much during the play, but she emphasizes the loss and fear felt within the community. Near the beginning, she says she "thought of my kids" after hearing the news on the radio. She wanted to scream. Why does it matter that she is a mother and she thought of her kids? Was she worried about their life? Was this politically good or bad for her views? Was she an ally or a hater of the LGBTQ+ community?
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