Death Penalty in the USA

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Death penalty movies are normally anti-death penalty stories. Some death penalty films take the popular stand in favour of society’s right to claim retribution from those who committed terrible crimes but many films assume a political stance against the death penalty, involving the execution of prisoners whom we know to be innocent. Indeed, in the Green Mile, based on the Stephen King novel, a large Afro-American man is found guilty of murdering two young girls and is sentenced to death. While on death row, we learn he is innocent but there is no way to stop his inevitable execution. The anti-death penalty message is not obvious in Dead Man Walking where an intermediary comes to death row, forms an empathic relationship with the suspicious prisoner, and assists the prisoner to achieve personal redemption. The movie impresses for its starkness and honesty. Another anti-death penalty movie is The Life of David Gale with Kevin Spacey. Often times people view capital punishment as a justifiable form of punishment until they become aware of all the complications or are involved in the process personally such as the prison guard played by Tom Hanks in The Green Mile.

In this films, we see the condemned prepare for death, walk to the place of execution, and suffer the death agony. For instance, in the Green Mile, we witness no less than three electrocutions. The purpose of these movies is to make people react in front of drift of the death penalty, to arouse awareness (realization) while alluding to, for example, the sixth commandment "Thou shall not kill” or an emotional roller coaster.

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(Transition) It will be nice to come back to the real impact of death penalty

Many celebrities talked about death penalty and outlined arguments against capital punishment. Jeremy Irons said that there are many arguments against the death penalty. “It’s not a deterrent against the crimes that it punishes: societies who use the death penalty don’t have lower crime rates than those that do(n’t). When a country abolishes the death penalty they are not plunged into criminal chaos. But even if the death penalty did reduce crime rates would it then be acceptable? The death penalty targets the economically disadvantaged: those who can’t afford good legal counsel, those without a voice in society. There’s a saying in the US: ‘capital punishment means that those without capital get the punishment’. Statistics show this is true. But would it be acceptable if people from all sections of society were executed: does killing a rich man make killing a poor man right? The death penalty is irreversible and results in the death of innocents. [...] The death penalty is never acceptable. It abuses two of our most basic human rights: everyone has the right to live and no one should be subject to torture. The death penalty obviously kills people, but it also tortures, physically by the brutal nature of execution and psychologically by forcing individuals to wait to be killed. They wait, sometimes for decades, while others are led to their deaths. The horror of this waiting is unimaginable. Human rights are thus called because they apply to all human beings. They belong to all of us equally. An attack on these fundamental rights anywhere is an attack against all of us. The right to life is inalienable: it cannot be given and it cannot be taken away, no matter how terrible the crime. In a world of uncertainty human rights, human rights are a clearly drawn line a line between what is right and what is wrong. The line between imprisonment and execution. Every individual facing the death penalty is, whatever they stand accused of, still a human being. However much we revile them, however much we are outraged by their actions, however much we want revenge, they are still human beings. They may well have killed and tortured, they’ve crossed the line, but do we really want to join them?”

To conclude and To add a little touch of humour, I would quote the American humorist Lenny Bruce who said « If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses. » And you, do you think that the states have a right to kill ?