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Dead Man Walking

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The movie Dead Man Walking revolves around a murderer who is sentenced to death for killing of a young couple. Prior to the execution, Sister Helen pleads with the courts to reduce the death sentence into a life imprisonment. She argues that the death sentence is too harsh even though the suspect is alleged to have committed murder. Moreover, sentencing the person to death will not provide an opportunity for such a person to reform. The paper explores actions and utterances in this movie which shows that Sister Helen is a truly good person.
At the beginning of the movie, Helen receives a letter from a death row inmate. The inmate pleads with Helen to pay her a visit and being the good person she is, she accepts to visit the prisoner. It is …show more content…

In such a scenario, many would have deserted the convict as he was going to die in a few days’ time. On the contrary, Helen did stick by the side of the man who was facing death. She comforted and gave him spiritual guidance during this time of great mental anguish and anxiety. Her comforting words and reassurance was instrumental in helping the convict face the death sentence more boldly. In particular, she sang hymns, read the Bible and placed a hand over the shoulder of Poncelet as he was lead to the execution room (Kellman 1). Her action of comforting a villain who was staring at death is a sure depiction of her goodness. It can therefore be argued that in the absence of Helen’s help, Mathews Poncelet would have undergone severe depression before being …show more content…

This is in spite of the fact that she did not have any relationship with them. In bid to alleviate their suffering, she convinced the Poncelet to confess his crimes and apologize to the affected family. This was an uphill task as the convict had maintained his innocence all along in the course of the trial. However, the kindness and compassion shown to Poncelet by Helen made him to acknowledge that he was behind the killings and rape. This was a major relieve to the family as they were now assured that an innocent man was not being condemned to unjust death. Moreover, she convinced the convict to apologize to the families of the victims which he did. In the movie, Poncelet tells the parents of the girl that he murdered that he hopes that his death would bring some peace to them. This showed that she did not only care for the wellbeing of the convict but also for that of the families of the

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