In-Class Write

In-Class Write

From watching and studying my film, I believe a person could gain knowledge about the history of the United States by taking note of how different people reacted to the death penalty laws. Similar to today, this is still a controversial topic, and I believe that this was very well represented in my movie, Dead Man Walking. The debate on whether this punishment was constitutional was a significant problem in the film, so much so that individuals were even shamed for it. For example, Sister Helen Prejean acted as a spiritual coach for the murderer, Matthew Poncelet. Helen was a Catholic nun who was anti-death penalty, and wanted to help Matthew leave this world in peace. She would often participate in protests towards these death laws, along with sharing her opinions on the matter with her peers. Despite her doing this out of the warmness in her heart and her spiritual beliefs, she was still given a hard time about her decisions to help and guide Matthew. She was shamed by the public by hurtful news articles being written about her, along with harsh words from families of the murdered victims. Even through this negativity, Sister Helen did have a support system of fellow members of the church, and select families who were all shamed as well. This is important to note because even though our country states that it is morally for everyone to have an opinion, there are still irrational aspects to controversial topics.

From taking heavy research regarding the death penalty, I believe a person can gain knowledge regarding the United States through concepts of law and how the death penalty originated. Starting in the mid 1900’s, Nixon came into presidency promising to appoint “strict constructionists”, meaning to establish more thorough punishments for the crimes committed in the US. Through 1967-1972, Nixon was able to appoint four new justices to the supreme court including a new chief justice system which did include the death penalty. Similar to the movie, Dead Man Walking, there were some contradicting opinions on the death penalty such as how the Burger court wanted to take less harsh punishment for criminal law.  This court struck down all existing capital punishment laws in Ferman v. Georgia but were unfortunately shortly restored in Gregg v. Georgia. This is important because it gives us knowledge about how the subject of the death penalty is such a controversial topic.

From just watching the film, a person would not be able to fully understand the controversy of the topic of death penalty laws. There was some disagreement shown, but the movie does not fully encapsulate the origination of the laws towards the criminals. Similar to what was said before, death penalty laws came into play more so when Nixon came into presidency and appointed the new chief system. Ever since this period in the 1960’s, this law has been abolished but restored several times for it is such a complicated and sensitive topic. By only watching the film, I don’t believe one could truly understand the complication of the law itself.

Another aspect that a person would not be able to fully grasp by such watching the film is to understand how outstanding Sister Helen Prejean is. Sister helen Prejean was a Roman Catholic Sister who was an active member of the Congregation of St. Joseph. As a nun, she believed that she would live a life of quiet, religious contemplation, and in her early years of being a nun, she had what she calls a religious awakening. Helen worked with residents of the St.Thomas housing project in New Orleans, and realized that in order to live up to her faith and ideals, she must shoulder the struggles of the poor as if they were her own. Because of this, she then dedicated her life to helping others and lead her to focus in the social justice system which typically included the death penalty. She knew this was a controversial topic and wanted to help as many people as she could, for that was her new mission as a nun. She did all of this knowing of the possibly hate she would get from her community but continued to prosper despite of these possible consequences. This not only made Sister Helen a hero to these people and families, but an extremely brave women that will go down in history.

If the person who made my movie was to add another 20 minutes of time to the film, I think I would like to include more scenes and information regarding Matthew’s spiritual and mental journey leading up to his death. It seems as if Sister Helen had physically and mentally changed him as a person, for he claimed to leave the world without hate in his heart. I would love to be able to see the process in how Sister was able to change him as a person, along with more background information on Matthew Poncelet such as how he started his life of crime. In general, I wish I had a better understanding of Matthew and Helen’s journey to a peaceful death. I think this would not only be interesting, but a great way to show coming to terms with a controversial topic.