Analysis Of Dead Man Walking, Through Sister Helen Prejean

Though it may seem that the debate over the death penalty only most recently surfaced, the dreadful tradition of capital punishment arrived in the United States at the time of the colonists. In the 17th century, most people were hung, beheaded, burned alive, or crushed under stones. All of these were in public, where a large crowd gathered to watch the horrible sight, similar to the tradition in old Europe. Eventually, the 19th century favored hanging as the most common form of execution. This marked the start of a more humane approach accepted as constitutional as executions moved away from the public eye. More developments came in the 1800’s as a movement to abolish capital punishment arose. This effort was stalled for a time during the Civil

This paper will briefly cover the world history of the use of the death penalty as well as its current use in the United States of America. The paper will discuss the statistics of how often the death penalty is utilized as a sentence for capital crimes as well as the time a convicted person spends awaiting the death penalty to be imposed. This paper will utilize research from published sources. This paper will also review current death penalty issues are the occurring in our court systems today.

Dead Man Walking was an autobiography written by Sister Helen Prejean. The novel tells about Prejean's life in dealing with her intimate journey through her dealings with capital punishment. Prejean was a Roman Catholic nun that worked in St. Thomas. She worked in a New Orleans housing project for black residents. In January of 1982, Prejean was asked to be a pen pal with a death row inmate named Pat Sonnier. Prejean accepted because she believed that the work seemed to fit with what she was doing at the time. Prejean wrote to Sonnier, believing that she would not be written back. Sonnier, convicted of the brutal murder of two highschool students at a local football game, surprisingly

The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Kurtis 67). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US (Biskupic 34). On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Biskupic 34).

The film, Dead Man Walking was made in 1995, and was adopted from Sister Helen Prejean 's 1993 autobiographical book, which has the same title. It examines one of the most highly debated controversial issues of our time - capital punishment. Since the protagonist of a film is regarded as the "good guy," I would apply this label to Sister Helen Prajean, played by Susan Sarandon, and that of the antagonist, or the "bad guy" to Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn. However, even though Sean Penn is definitely the "bad guy," by definition, my feelings changed as the film progressed with Sean 's eventual understanding of the "enormity of his transgression." (Rozan, 17) The story presented in the film attracts the

The use of death as a punishment for one’s crimes is not a new concept in early American history. Up until the 1960s, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution have permitted the use of death as a penalty to those who committed heinous crimes. However, the fundamental legality of the death penalty is being

The death penalty has always been an interest for the American people. During the early part of American history the death penalty was used for a variety of reasons like treason, infidelity, and witchcraft. During the time of Dark Romanticism, the death penalty started to be viewed in a negative way. This is evident in the “Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe, a man was wrongly accused of a crime and was sentenced to death only to be freed (Poe, 1993). During the current literary period Contemporary, the death penalty has been written as an act of heinous proportions. This may be caused by the reaction of Americans to Adolf Hitler’s death camps and the poor treatment Russians suffered under the reign of Joseph Stalin. The death penalty

Capital Punishment has been a part of the United States since 1622. In fact, at this point in time, there were no arguments over whether killing a person was immoral or unfair. Killing a person for committing murder or other serious crimes was simply required by law. Over the course of the next five centuries however, an

The Death Penalty is a very controversial topic that requires research and immense amount of thought before being able to take a side on the topic. Before reading Sister Helen’s book I thought that the death penalty was wrong, but I did not have a firm stance on the issue. Like many people I still had the mentality of “an eye for an eye.” I thought of how I would feel if faced with the loss of a loved one, due to another’s actions. Before I was shown the other perspective I only sympathized with the victim’s family. The problem with my former opinion was that I still believed that killing was wrong, but that it was okay because the person committed an evil crime.

Crime in America is something that has been around for many decades. While a large number of crimes are considered minor, many more result in the serious injury or death of another human being. “When we think about crimes, we … normally focus on inherently wrongful acts that harm or threaten to harm persons or property” (Bibas 22). The death penalty, also called capital punishment, has been used as a means of punishing the most violent of criminals in an attempt to prevent others from committing similar crimes. Over the centuries, the methods used to conduct these executions have evolved and changed due to effectiveness and public opinion.

The death penalty has changed drastically throughout history. Some of the first known written laws regarding the death penalty date back to the eighteenth century BCE (“Part I”, 2016). It is likely that some form of the death penalty existed long before written history, with a basis in customs, not legalities. The death penalty has continued to evolve throughout history, shaping the modern practices used in the United States and other parts of the world today. The administration of the death penalty has been shaped by the moral principles of those in authority and the mindset of the general public at each stage of history. This is shown through the evolution of different methods of execution, documented cases during critical points in history, and the laws pertaining to the death penalty at different

Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean is a bestselling novel based upon the death sentence of Patrick Sonnier and his brother Eddie. It is a very suspenseful and heart-wrenching novel on the topic of capital punishment, and allows for an “eyewitness account” to see the true horrors and injustice of the American justice system. The novel itself is very descriptive in the settings and the various methods of punishment used at that time, and provides a very negative bias towards punishment. It is a sole contradiction to the 8th amendment, and a very well-thought and planned one at that. In fact, it is fit to be the novel that sparked the national debate. Prejean allows the use of her personal experiences, no matter how gruesome or vulgar, to

Death penalty, which is often described as capital punishment, is pronounced on offenders who have committed extremely heinous crimes. It is an ancient practice but in the United States it has faced several controversies in the latter half of the twentieth century (Robertson, 14). Does the death penalty serve any purpose in our current judicial system? Criminal executions were first implemented in our society as a crime deterrent to ensure that the offenders cannot engage in future crimes but time has shown that cost, errors, and effectiveness have led many to believe there are alternatives available.

“An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation” (Coretta Scott King). In many ways, capital punishment is a classic American interest. Even into the twentieth century, public executions were a source of entertainment, drawing large crowds and children (Kaplan). Since America’s first recorded execution in 1608, the death penalty still holds tremendous power to elicit strong emotions and opinions (History of the…). Many Americans believe that state sanctioned executions are justified, due to the often heinous nature of the condemned prisoner’s crimes. Moreover, a recent U.S Supreme Court ruling reinstated the notion that capital punishment is a humane and necessary deterrent of violent crime (de Vogue). However, there is increasing concern that the primary method of carrying out capital punishment, lethal injection, once touted as a relatively painless process, may actually veer into the realm of torture. However, these botched executions, in which prisoners suffered painful and extended executions as a result of malfunctioning equipment, inexperienced medical staff, and poorly studied drug interactions are increasingly gaining public attention. Despite capital punishment’s long and contentious history, it is a deeply flawed, racist, ineffective, painful, and unconstitutional process.

In Jamestown Colony, Virginia, in 1608, the first execution in America took place (Urbina 8). Since then, the debate over capital punishment has been never-ending, capturing the attention of citizens of all types. Americans have argued relentlessly over many issues that the death penalty brings to politics, economics, and moral values. In the article titled “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate,” Adam Liptak explores both sides of the debate, highlighting the benefits that the death penalty provides to society. He states that the death penalty deters murders and accepts that innocent men might become casualties in the process. However, other experts disagree with Liptak. Opposing research shows that the death penalty does not deter