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Dead Man Walking (1995)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
1995 | Drama, Mystery

"I think the next one was Dead Man Walking. One, it was a brilliant film with brilliant performances, but I thought the filmmaker put forth the question without giving us the answers. And I thought he did it masterfully. You know, it’s a question of capital punishment. It wasn’t preachy, it wasn’t didactic, it wasn’t sort of a polemic that you kind of go, “Let’s investigate this like an English class.” It was telling you a great story because, you know, all the audience wants to hear is what happened next. So it was telling you a great story, and based on the story telling I found my perspective changing. I had great sympathy for Sean Penn’s character and then suddenly I didn’t. And I thought he deserved exactly what he got. And then in the next fifteen minutes, my point of view would change. That’s why I thought it really involved you on an emotional level on the question of capital punishment. But even more than that I think it showed what film can do and what really great storytelling can do."

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Surviving Execution
Surviving Execution
Ian Woods | 2018 | Crime, Law
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First off thank you to readers first for a copy of this book.

Surviving execution is the true story of Richard Glossip, a man who is on death row for a crime he never committed. Richard Glossip’s story is told by Ian Woods a UK Sky news reporter, Ian wanted to bring this to the UK’s attention of the miscarriage of justice and how capital punishment is not always as straight forward as it’s made out to be.

Richard Glossip was arrested for the murder of his boss and motel owner Barry Von Treese, however Richard was not the person that killed him but was implicated by Justin Sneed and the police who interviewed him. For this the man who actually murdered Barry Von Treese got life without parole whilst Richard gets the death penalty for being the supposed mastermind.

Richards Glossip didn’t start off well with a bad lawyer that was under qualified for this type of case and failure to bringing certain evidence to light was going to cost Richard his life. With multiple trials, appeals and stays you would hope this man would get some sort of break, however that’s not the case and shows how corrupt the police and the law can be.

Also this book tells us a bit about the history of Capital Punishment, the methods, the countries and also the abolitionists. Although this is non fiction it is really easy to digest and very much the page turner. It makes you question so many things and whether this should really still be carried out.

We also get an insight in to what Ian Woods is thinking as he is helping this mans case and whether he would or could witness the death of a man that he has come to know and call a friend. Ian tries to remain unbiased especially when asked if he thinks Richard is guilty which infuriates others helping with the case. This case got some high coverage as Richard Branson, Susan Sarandon, Sister Helen Prejean and even the Pope got involved.

I would really recommend reading this book if you are interested in true crime and capital punishment. Maybe just read this book so you can decide if the state of Oklahoma was correct in giving this man the death penalty.