Tim Robbins Death Penalty

The death penalty has remained one of the hardest pressed and controversial issues in today's society. Dead Man Walking, directed by Tim Robbins, is an unbiased film that explores judicial execution with a firsthand look at capital punishment and all of its finer details. It is a story about a pious nun, Sister Helen Prejean, who become a spiritual advisor to Matthew Poncelet, a death row inmate. Robbins uses Prejean to call into question how such an inhumane punishment can affirm the value of human life when its consequences are so emotionally barbaric. While David Bruck does not believe in the benefits of capital punishment and Ernest van den Haag qualifies it, Robbins utilizes Prejean to elicit discussions illustrating the conflicting

in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes (Part I: History of the Death Penalty). Since then it has evolved and has become one of the most argued and controversial topics of the century. According to Amnesty International, seventy-six countries have eradicated the death penalty completely, and many countries that retain the death penalty have not utilized it for years. One of the reasons this topic is so disputed is because of the anguish that comes with it, especially for the condemned. As reported by the Death Penalty Information Center, death-row inmates live in a state of constant uncertainty over when they will be executed. For some death row inmates, this isolation and anxiety results in a sharp deterioration in their mental status. Michael Ryan, in his film critique, confirms this issue by explaining Matthew Poncelet's angst about his nearing death. “[what’s] left of him is fear, which is only exceeded by his fear of dying” (Ryan 229). This also exemplifies the inhumanity of capital punishment. The death penalty has been argued both statistically and morally, which is the backing for Prejean’s belief that the greater benefit of prison over death far outweighs the believed benefits of this archaic

Moreover, in some aspects the families of the convict suffer more emotional barbarity than the convict themselves for the reason that their suffering does not stop when the execution is over. The parents of the victims have to go through tremendous hardships after their children's deaths which is thoroughly depicted throughout the film. One incident where this is especially clear is when Sister Helen goes to visit Mr. and Mrs. Percy, Hope’s parents. Mrs. Percy explains how the law enforcement officials tried to distance the parents from the barbarous and ugly scene of their murdered daughter. “The police wouldn't let us go down to the morgue and identify the body. They said it would be too traumatic” (DMW). Michael Ryan further proved this thought by explaining “[none] of them suffer the death of his or her child in exactly the same way, but they all suffer it as much as it’s possible to suffer” (Ryan 233). The prosecution lawyer at Matthew Poncelet’s pardon board hearing, draws on this extended suffering of the victim's parents with regard to keep Matthew’s execution date the same. “These families will never see their children graduate from college. They will never attend their wedding. They will never have Christmas with them again. There will be no grandchildren” (DMW). As the death penalty can be psychologically traumatic