Hacker Cinema
Dead Man Walking
1995 · Film · 122 min
Directed by Tim Robbins
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
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2 comments on Hacker News
> Death penalty is supported because we think it sends the person to eternal torment in hell, not because we think it purifies them.
It is also supported because it can be used as a self-defence mechanism.
We take it for granted that when we lock up 'really' dangerous people they will be safely away from society, but that kind of infrastructure is a fairly recent phenomena in human history. Prison breaks/escapes still happen:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prison_escapes#2022_–_present
Not only from a building-prisoners perspective, but also from an excess-resources point of view: through most of human history, suggesting using society's surplus—which probably wasn't there—to feed someone 'evil' while everyone else had to work away would have seemed very unfair.
If a single individual has the right to self-defence against an attacker, and a ("small") group of individuals have the same right (e.g., a bunch of folks worshipping in a temple, mosque, church), then wouldn't a "large" group of individuals (e.g., society) have a right to protect themselves from an attacker?
With regards to "hell": someone, while waiting on death row, many repent of their actions and try to find redemption, but still be executed from a legal point of view:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man_Walking_(book)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man_Walking_(film)
Dead Man Walking
Growing up, I was always pro-death penalty and never thought much about it. My parents were pro-death penalty, after all, and I always assumed their political positions were well reasoned.
Dead Man Walking depicted the horrors of the death penalty, and how it can sentence an innocent man to an irreversible punishment. And, even if the man is guilty, it is barbaric for the state to put someone to death.
I never thought deeply about the death penalty before that movie. After watching it, I understood that the only real reason for the death penalty to be inflicted is vengeance, an instinct a just society should not indulge.