Dead Man Walking - RESPONCE

While this entire movie was very emotional and powerful, there was one particular part that struck me. This was that, even though there were two men at the scene of the crime, and each said the other did it, only one got the death penalty. Why? "Bad luck." Matthew came from a very poor family, and was unable to hire a good lawyer. All he had to work on was the money that the state gave him, and this was nearly nothing. If Matthew had had the money, he would have been able to hire a good lawyer, a team of investigators, psychiatrists, and whatever it would take to win his case. As it were, his lawyer was useless: only raising a total of one objection throughout the entire proceedings.
Another thing was was very sad and something I did not know, was that, during the time where the family of the person about to be executed can visit with him, they are not aloud to touch him. The mother of Matthew, when saying goodbye to him for the last time, went to give him a hug and was actually physically stopped by guards. She had to bid farewell to her oldest son from a distance, not even able to come close enough to hold his hand or brush his cheek with her fingertips.
Part of the movie talked of the public and how people react to the thought of how morally wrong the killing of another person is. One particular quote stood out to me:
"It's easy to kill a monster... it's hard to kill a human being."

Dead Man Walking (article#9)

This movie follows the story of a nun that befriends a man on death row and begins a desperate attempt to appeal to the supreme court and get him another chance at life. This man, Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) had been on death row for six years under the charge of the rape and murder of a high school girl named Hope, and the murder of her boyfriend, Walter. What Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Serandon) finds is both disturbing and revealing about the capital punishment system.

Death Penalty in the States - RESPONCE

This was not so much an "article" persay as it was just an interesting and helpful statistic to have. As you can see, only 30% of all the states have found some sort of substitute to the death penalty, whereas 70% DO practice it. As my next few articles, I think it would be very interesting to figure out what the alternatives that the different states have found and what the reasoning of the non-converted states have presented as to why they have kept capital punishment as their law system.

Death Penalty in the States (article#8)

States with no death penalty:
Alaska , Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnestoa, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

States that have death penalty:
Alabama, American Samoa, Arizona, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Flordia, Georgia, Guam, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Northern Marianas Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Virgin Islands, Washington, and Wyoming.