Dead Man Walking is the story of Sister Helen Prejean’s involvement with death row convict Matthew Poncelet. Matthew Poncelet and Carl Vitello were charged and convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Walter Delacroix and Hope Percy six years prior. Sister Helen agrees to help Poncelet with his last appeal after claiming his innocence and begins to bond with him as well as his and the victim’s families. Time runs short as Poncelet’s execution is set when the governor announces his campaign for re-election. During the course of their relationship, Sister Helen tries to provoke Poncelet to reveal the truth about the murders to save his soul. While Sister Helen faces criticism from friends and family, she struggles with her morals when …show more content…
confronted by the victim’s families. Poncelet faces his own internal struggles as his days are numbered and while maintaining his innocence. The ethical issue Poncelet and Sister Helen face is the death penalty itself. Matthew Poncelet had attempted to fight the death penalty through the process of appeals and maintaining his innocence throughout his six years on death row. Despite the date of execution being made, Poncelet and his lawyer, Hilton filed his last appeal and was forced to wait for results. At his pardon board meeting, Sister Helen convinces Poncelet’s mother to invoke sympathy from the council by telling stories from his childhood trying to make him appear human instead of the killer he has been deemed as by society. As Hilton said, “it’s easy for them to kill a monster, but it’s hard to kill a human being.” After the board denies his pardon Poncelet, Sister Helen, and his counsel accept his fate that he will be executed. Sister Helen continues to urge Poncelet to speak the truth of what happened the night of the murders. I do not agree with how they went about the appeal process and accepted Poncelet’s fate.
While he did admit to the kidnapping and murder of Walter Delacroix and rape of Hope Percy before being executed; at his pardon hearing, Hilton mentioned to the board that Poncelet was given inadequate counsel by the state. The trial lawyer had previously worked in only tax law, had only raised one objection in the five-day length of the trial and had never participated in a capital murder trial. It had only taken them four hours to select the jury, which proves that the tax lawyer was not adequate enough to accurately represent Poncelet in a criminal trial. Hilton and Helen accepted the Governor’s very public meeting which denied the extension of Poncelet’s execution date when they were told it would be private. Furthermore, neither Hilton or Helen had tried to find more evidence of the first lawyer’s incompetence which could have possibly lead to a retrial and could have at least ended with Poncelet receiving a life sentence. Matthew’s last words were how he believes that killing is wrong regardless of who commits the crime, including the government. Sister Helen had spoken to a guard at Angola about the death penalty where he wonders why she can’t see the execution as justice when the bible quotes an eye for an eye. Her rebuttal is that she does not believe “in killing people to say killing people is …show more content…
wrong.” Another ethical issue I had found in Dead Man Walking was some of Sister Helen’s actions. After briefing herself on the case and accepting Matthew’s request to be his spiritual advisor she visited the victim’s families. The parents of Walter Delacroix and Hope Percy told her stories of their children growing up, what had happened the day after the teens did not return home and the events up to finding the bodies. Matthew Poncelet had an interview on television which he declared himself a white supremacist and how he idolizes Hitler. Sister Helen despite being a “Bride of Christ” continues to help him find redemption while she struggles with her faith. She prays often in the faith for strength to continue working with someone who goes against her beliefs. She creates an emotional bond with Poncelet as well at the end of the film when she tells him she will be the face of love for him and kisses his shoulder before he is strapped down to the bed. I believe that if Sister Helen had not gone and visited with the families it would not have been a big ethical issue.
After she had her the families stories she began to struggle more with her faith when her job was only to advise Matthew in his spiritual beliefs. Instead of trying to teach him how to save his soul, she focused more on the crime itself. Talking to the families makes the audience believe she is struggling to continue her work and looking for a reason to stop helping him. Her visiting the families is parallel to if his lawyer would have gone and sat with them. Sister Helen’s bond with Matthew seemed inappropriate for what her job was and is seen through her comments about his appearance up to the kiss on his shoulder and declaration of love before he dies. As a Nun and spiritual advisor, she was tasked with his spiritual well being not being an emotional crutch or family servant as he had asked her to do multiple things his mother should have, for example, Sister Helen made all of the funeral arrangements and found him a lawyer for his last
appeal. Dead Man Walking had the main ethical issue of the death penalty which was met with acceptance instead of a fight for a new trial and discovery of incompetence by Matthew Poncelet’s first lawyer. Instead of requesting another meeting with the Governor they accepted his abuse of publicity to be reelected. Sister Helen agreed to be a spiritual advisor for Matthew and tried to find a way to leave after speaking with the victim’s families. She completed her job at the end of the film since Matthew had told the truth and saved his soul, but that did not seem like her main concern. Sister Helen developed an emotional bond with Poncelet which seemed inappropriate as well. Overall I do not believe the character handled any of the issues well and could have possibly done more to help Poncelet.
Williams also incorporates her religious theme in the form of the couple’s daughter Martha. Martha goes to Sunday school every week where she loves learning about god. Although Martha is only a child, her prayers are very mature for her age. Martha’s character is in direct contrast to her parents. The story begins with Sarah and Tommy driving home from the third party they had been to that evening.
How one man would die just to take the life of another man and how that man John Wilkes Booth could have not been stopped. In Killing Lincoln by Bill o'reilly John Wilkes booth can not be stopped on his plan to assassinate the president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. First the Assassination of Lincoln really messed up the Confederates joining the Union again and made it a lot hard also it put John Wilkes Booth as the number one most wanted fugitive.
... If anyone is being accused of molesting a child, the reputation that they’ve got will be ruined forever. There’s no going back, she leaves him with nothing, other than a dirty slate, whether or not he is guilty. This nun gets her way, and her certainty drove her to believe something that was never proved to be true. Her authority and the wall she’s created between herself and everyone else makes her credible. His compassion was mistaken for something that he didn’t do. She had the upper hand, with her manipulation skills. The Sisters are her puppets as she remained in control of her parish. Father Flynn’s leave does affect Sister Aloysius, her certainty vanishes but the only thing that somewhat puts her at ease, is that she wants to believe that his leave, was his confession. Sister Aloysius has doubts that crush her in the ending scene. She caused her own demise
She tries to debate her subject and brings a sense to help her credibility as an authority by saying Jesus is not support death punishment. As times has indeed changed, “The “wicked” might be “coerced by the sword” to “protect the innocent,”…even punishment by death” states by
Helen comes from a very low class family and community. Helen’s family is known as what is called “the ghetto”, although they may not have riches they have a great heart that unites them happily. Helen depended so much on a believed love who failed her. Helen never really came far on her education due to having everything with Charles. Charles lost interest on Helen, but she was blindfolded to see that her happiness didn’t exist. Charles has had an affair during their matrimony with a light complected woman who is mother of his two children. The woman had more power over Helen’s feelings because Charles realized his children needed him. Charles left Helen without much to do, kicking her out o...
“The trial was brought to a speedy conclusion. Not only did Judge Evans find the twelve guilty, fine them $100 each, and committed them to jail, but five people in the courtroom who had served as witnesses for the defense arrested. […] The police were then instructed to transfer the seventeen prisoners that night to the county jail”(30).
The lesser of good evil arises in the film. Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) has been on death row for six years and now his time has come. He has taken the lives of two young teenagers and the families want revenge. The families are for the death penalty and that is what they have been waiting for, for Matthew Poncelet. In Dead Man Walking, there is a scene where the nun, Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is outside of the prison with protestors and the camera angle focuses o the protestors sign. It says “an eye for an eye (Matthew 5:38-39), a life for a life”. The quote comes form the Old Testament also known as the Hebrew bible. The New Testament states “whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also”(Luke 6:29). The director is trying to show us how the Old Testament and the New Testament contradict each other yet; they have a relation beca...
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
“ If that poor child of sorrow is hung, it will be deliberate, downright murder. Her death will be far more horrible infanticide than was the killing of her child. She is the child of our society and civilization, begotten and born of it, seduced by it, by the judge who pronounced her sentence, by the bar and jury, by the legislature that enacted the law (in which because a woman, she had no vote or voice), by the church and the pulpit that sanctify the law and deeds, of all these will her blood, yea, and her virtue too, be required! All these were the joint seducer, and now see if by hanging her, they will also become her murderer.”
The second level was as a messenger of religion, a messenger of God. For the
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
Narration: was “fraught with errors.” He added that “until I can assure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.”
Later on that day, a delegation was invited into the prison by the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard de Launay. DeLaunay then invited the delegation to lunch with him. When they did not return the mob became angry, fearing that they had been detained. A second delegation was sent forth. These soon came out again with the message that the Governor had adamantly refused to surrender. The delegates also had the information that the cannon were unloaded. This piece of news was all that the mob needed to urge them on. "...But the fury of the crowd continued to increase and their blind wrath did not spare de Launay's escort...Exhausted by his efforts to defend his prisoner...he had to seperate from M. de Launay...Hardly had he sat down when, looking after the procession, he saw the head of M. de Launay stuck on the point of a pike...The people, fearing that their victim might be snatched away from them, hastened to cut his throat on the steps of the Hotel de Ville..."
“Fear the Walking Dead” is set to shake its viewers’ minds when its first episode airs in the U.S. on August 23.
"Dead Man Walking" is a film in which a convicted killer is on death row who eventually meets and forms a bond with a nun. While watching the film many questions were brought up, the main one being whether Matthew Poncelet, who is partially responsible for the death of a high school couple and rape of the female victim, should face the death penalty. The film ultimately answers the question for us with him being denied in the appeal court and is eventually executed. Now while the film killing Matthew is justified, I wonder to myself was his death ethically justifiable? Since ethics has many ways of approaching a situation such as this I would like to only apply ethical conventionalism to this scenario.