Capital Punishment, Dead Man Walking
Capital Punishment is also known as the death penalty; where convicted criminals are condemned to death usually through hanging, electrocution or injection. Matthew Poncelet in the movie Dead man walking was convicted of the rape and murder of two teenagers. “You will never see a rich person on death row; they can afford a good lawyer. Us poor folk can’t afford lawyers we get them appointed to us to do what? Just give us the punishment we’ve been accused of”.
Every body values their life differently, and individual willingness play’s a important part in it, Matthew Poncelet valued his life very much, throughout the movie he showed a willingness to live and not wanting to die, towards the end of the movie his relationship with Sister Helen Prejean deepened his knowledge and value of his own life, he believed that capital punishment is wrong “weather it be by me, government, or the state. It was influenced by sister Helen Prejean, she was Matthew’s spiritual advisor right up to his death she attempted to save his soul through getting Matthew Poncelet to admit to what he had done, facing the consequences and then requesting forgiveness. Death stared him in the face, for the killing and rape of two teenagers, Matthew believed that Sister Helen Prejean was the only person to truly love him “thank you for loving me” “I want the last face you see in this world to be the face of love, so you look at me when they do this thing. I'll be the face of love for you.”
Sister Helen Prejean valued God and life she believed that “the truth will set us free” and that through being Matthew’s spiritual advisor she could develop a strong enough relationship with Matthew for him to trust her and love her enough to own up to what he did (confess his sin) She strongly opposes to capital punishment as killing someone because they killed does not justify the act of killing. When Matthew did confess to her the rape and murder of two teenagers she was able to eventually ask for his...
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