Amnesty International has just released a report titled Hanging by a Thread: Mental Health and the Death Penalty in Japan, which is a valuable follow-up to Amnesty's 2006 report on The Execution of Mentally Ill Offenders in the U.S. and also complements our own recent report, Double Tragedies.
Here's a paragraph from the introduction to Hanging by a Thread:
The effect of mental illness on the behaviour of an offender has long been recognized as a factor in determining culpability and appropriate punishment for crime. The application of the death penalty against prisoners who were “insane” at the time of their offence or who subsequently became insane has been prohibited for centuries in some jurisdictions. International human rights standards prohibit the imposition of the death penalty on, and the execution of, the mentally ill. This report examines the issue of mental health and the death penalty in Japan and is prompted by continuing reports of mentally ill prisoners in Japan being executed or detained in harsh conditions awaiting execution.
The report details several specific stories and also contains valuable discussion of international human rights law and of the death penalty in Japan in general. It has gotten some good press coverage. For example, this CNN story said:
Japan executes such prisoners despite signing an international law that requires inmates with serious mental illness to be exempt from the death penalty, according to Amnesty. The report urged the government to establish a moratorium on executions and consider abolishing the death penalty.
And here's a clip from The Associated Press story:
The report focuses on five male inmates currently on death row. Amnesty International, which staunchly opposes the death penalty, had no direct access to the prisoners. It relied on interviews with family members, lawyers and medical reports to conclude that they are likely suffering from mental illness.
Japan's Justice Ministry had no comment on the report, ministry official Akihiro Ishi said.
Japan, along with the United States, is one of the few industrialized countries that still has capital punishment. The practice has long been criticized by rights groups and the main Japanese bar association, but there is little public outcry or indication the government will stop its executions, which are all done by hanging.
Executing mentally ill prisoners would put Japan in violation of U.N. standards for individuals facing the death penalty. Amnesty International is calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions in the country.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
We need a new way to understand
On this anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, here are some words from our Gallery of Victims' Stories from family members of victims killed in those attacks:
From Loretta Filipov: "After Al was killed, some thought we would feel differently and want revenge. My family and I would have liked nothing better than to have Mohammed Atta and the other terrorists from Flight 11 brought to an open trial and given 92 life sentences; one sentence for each person aboard that flight. But they and the other terrorists also killed themselves on that day. What kind of a world do we want for future generations? We can see from the present course we are following that violence only begets more violence and killing only leads to more killing. It is possible to have justice without revenge and hate. The death penalty is not the answer.”
From Terry Greene: "We cannot afford to enact measures that give the illusion of safety while doing nothing to deter killings. The death penalty has proven ineffective as a deterrent. It only promotes the acceptability of taking lives, a cycle which must instead be broken."
From Robin Theurkauf: “I am opposed to the death penalty because it sanctions violence and revenge as justice. We have somehow become socialized to believe that if we do not kill the author of a horrific crime, justice has not been done. We need a new way to understand a just response to horrible crimes that does not include more violence. When we exercise the death penalty we become in some way what we deplore."
And from Anthony Aversano: “If I let hatred consume my life from that terrorist attack, then that act of terror would have taken more than my father, more than those many other lives and more than those buildings, it would have taken my life too! If I let that happen, then the tragedy of that one day would poison me forever."
From Loretta Filipov: "After Al was killed, some thought we would feel differently and want revenge. My family and I would have liked nothing better than to have Mohammed Atta and the other terrorists from Flight 11 brought to an open trial and given 92 life sentences; one sentence for each person aboard that flight. But they and the other terrorists also killed themselves on that day. What kind of a world do we want for future generations? We can see from the present course we are following that violence only begets more violence and killing only leads to more killing. It is possible to have justice without revenge and hate. The death penalty is not the answer.”
From Terry Greene: "We cannot afford to enact measures that give the illusion of safety while doing nothing to deter killings. The death penalty has proven ineffective as a deterrent. It only promotes the acceptability of taking lives, a cycle which must instead be broken."
From Robin Theurkauf: “I am opposed to the death penalty because it sanctions violence and revenge as justice. We have somehow become socialized to believe that if we do not kill the author of a horrific crime, justice has not been done. We need a new way to understand a just response to horrible crimes that does not include more violence. When we exercise the death penalty we become in some way what we deplore."
And from Anthony Aversano: “If I let hatred consume my life from that terrorist attack, then that act of terror would have taken more than my father, more than those many other lives and more than those buildings, it would have taken my life too! If I let that happen, then the tragedy of that one day would poison me forever."
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
It's not going to bring me peace
From an article in the September 6th issue of the Evansville (IN) Courier & Press:
If Mary Winnecke wished death upon Eric Wrinkles, it would be easy to understand why. Wrinkles is a death-row inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He stands convicted of killing three people, including Winnecke's daughter, Natalie Fulkerson.
Natalie was only 26. Her death left behind two orphaned children and a world of pain for surviving loved ones. And Eric Wrinkles was the cause of it all.
But to understand why Winnecke wants Wrinkles to live — well, that's the story.
Winnecke says her Catholic faith compels her to oppose the death penalty and to pray for her daughter's killer. She does not believe the state should put Wrinkles to death, even though he ended Natalie's life.
"What right do they have to kill in her name?" Winnecke said.
This summer, Winnecke started a letter-writing campaign on Wrinkles' behalf. Columns in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville's weekly newspaper, "The Message," have outlined Winnecke's desire that fellow death-penalty opponents join her in writing to Gov. Mitch Daniel's office asking that Wrinkles' sentence be commuted to life in prison, and to end the death penalty altogether.
And:
Winnecke wasn't always opposed to the death penalty. But when the topic came up in a Bible study group, she started to think and pray about it. Over time — she can't remember exactly when — she grew convinced that the death penalty is wrong in all cases.
Winnecke's opposition to the death penalty puts her among a growing number of Catholics who feel the same way, according to a local theology professor.
"For many faithful Catholics, opposition to the death penalty is consistent with our respect for all life from conception to natural death," said Mark Ginter, associate professor of moral theology at St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind.
In 1980, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
And from later in the article:
The trauma of the brutal crime affected Winnecke mentally as well as emotionally.
Winnecke used to work as a legal secretary. Since Natalie's death, Winnecke said her ability to think in a linear fashion — her sense of time, her ability to remember daily details like friends' names — has been shattered.
"I don't go 'A-B-C' any more. The mind just doesn't do it," she said.
Winnecke holds Wrinkles fully responsible for his crimes.
"He deserves to spend his life in jail. He murdered three people. All his rights should be taken away," Winnecke said.
Even so, thinking of Wrinkles' execution fills Winnecke with dread.
"It's not going to bring me peace. It's not going to bring me nothing. ... It's just going to be a horrible day, the day he dies," Winnecke said.
If Mary Winnecke wished death upon Eric Wrinkles, it would be easy to understand why. Wrinkles is a death-row inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. He stands convicted of killing three people, including Winnecke's daughter, Natalie Fulkerson.
Natalie was only 26. Her death left behind two orphaned children and a world of pain for surviving loved ones. And Eric Wrinkles was the cause of it all.
But to understand why Winnecke wants Wrinkles to live — well, that's the story.
Winnecke says her Catholic faith compels her to oppose the death penalty and to pray for her daughter's killer. She does not believe the state should put Wrinkles to death, even though he ended Natalie's life.
"What right do they have to kill in her name?" Winnecke said.
This summer, Winnecke started a letter-writing campaign on Wrinkles' behalf. Columns in the Catholic Diocese of Evansville's weekly newspaper, "The Message," have outlined Winnecke's desire that fellow death-penalty opponents join her in writing to Gov. Mitch Daniel's office asking that Wrinkles' sentence be commuted to life in prison, and to end the death penalty altogether.
And:
Winnecke wasn't always opposed to the death penalty. But when the topic came up in a Bible study group, she started to think and pray about it. Over time — she can't remember exactly when — she grew convinced that the death penalty is wrong in all cases.
Winnecke's opposition to the death penalty puts her among a growing number of Catholics who feel the same way, according to a local theology professor.
"For many faithful Catholics, opposition to the death penalty is consistent with our respect for all life from conception to natural death," said Mark Ginter, associate professor of moral theology at St. Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind.
In 1980, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
And from later in the article:
The trauma of the brutal crime affected Winnecke mentally as well as emotionally.
Winnecke used to work as a legal secretary. Since Natalie's death, Winnecke said her ability to think in a linear fashion — her sense of time, her ability to remember daily details like friends' names — has been shattered.
"I don't go 'A-B-C' any more. The mind just doesn't do it," she said.
Winnecke holds Wrinkles fully responsible for his crimes.
"He deserves to spend his life in jail. He murdered three people. All his rights should be taken away," Winnecke said.
Even so, thinking of Wrinkles' execution fills Winnecke with dread.
"It's not going to bring me peace. It's not going to bring me nothing. ... It's just going to be a horrible day, the day he dies," Winnecke said.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Coverage in Mental Health Weekly
I've just gotten the copy of Mental Health Weekly that has an article about our collaborative project with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The publication isn't available online (except by subscription), so I can't link to it, but here's an excerpt from the article:
A new report released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is calling the death penalty as a response to homicides committed by persons with severe mental illness (SMI) “inappropriate and unwarranted.” The report is being supported by families of murder victims who, for the first time, are joining families of persons with mental illness to speak out about the death penalty.
The focus should be on affordable and appropriate treatment to help prevent or minimize the risk of violence committed by some individuals who experience acute psychotic symptoms of mental illness, according to the report, released during NAMI’s annual convention earlier this month.
The report, “Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness,” is a joint project of NAMI and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), an international organization of relatives of homicide victims and relatives of people who have been executed. ...
The same standards established for defendants with mental retardation and juveniles in dealing with the death penalty should also apply to defendants with a serious mental illness, said Ron Honberg, national director for policy and legal affairs for NAMI.
The driving force for the project involves families of people who have been murdered and families of people who have been executed, he noted. Families on both sides came together last October in San Antonio, Texas, to share their stories, and begin the conversation of advocating for those with mental illness, said Honberg. This gathering marked the official launch of the project, titled “Prevention, Not Execution,” to bring a new perspective to the debate about whether persons with severe mental illnesses should be exempt from capital punishment, he noted.
“There’s a public perception that murdered victims’ families support the death penalty,” said Honberg. While some do, more victims’ families are for human rights and support the mission to end the death penalty for offenders with SMI, he noted.
A person with SMI who is executed or is on death row only adds to the tragedy and to the pain, and does nothing to prevent future tragedies, Honberg noted. NAMI advocates continue to advocate for better services in the community, such as housing, and for other improvements to the mental health system, he noted.
A new report released by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is calling the death penalty as a response to homicides committed by persons with severe mental illness (SMI) “inappropriate and unwarranted.” The report is being supported by families of murder victims who, for the first time, are joining families of persons with mental illness to speak out about the death penalty.
The focus should be on affordable and appropriate treatment to help prevent or minimize the risk of violence committed by some individuals who experience acute psychotic symptoms of mental illness, according to the report, released during NAMI’s annual convention earlier this month.
The report, “Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness,” is a joint project of NAMI and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), an international organization of relatives of homicide victims and relatives of people who have been executed. ...
The same standards established for defendants with mental retardation and juveniles in dealing with the death penalty should also apply to defendants with a serious mental illness, said Ron Honberg, national director for policy and legal affairs for NAMI.
The driving force for the project involves families of people who have been murdered and families of people who have been executed, he noted. Families on both sides came together last October in San Antonio, Texas, to share their stories, and begin the conversation of advocating for those with mental illness, said Honberg. This gathering marked the official launch of the project, titled “Prevention, Not Execution,” to bring a new perspective to the debate about whether persons with severe mental illnesses should be exempt from capital punishment, he noted.
“There’s a public perception that murdered victims’ families support the death penalty,” said Honberg. While some do, more victims’ families are for human rights and support the mission to end the death penalty for offenders with SMI, he noted.
A person with SMI who is executed or is on death row only adds to the tragedy and to the pain, and does nothing to prevent future tragedies, Honberg noted. NAMI advocates continue to advocate for better services in the community, such as housing, and for other improvements to the mental health system, he noted.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Hear the Words of Texas Families of the Executed
Our colleagues at the Texas After Violence Project, whom we interviewed for the MVFHR newsletter last year, have posted excerpts from a couple of the interviews they have done with family members of the executed in Texas.
One is from their interview with Tina Duroy, whose brother James Colburn was executed in 2003. The Texas After Violence Project conducted this particular interview specifically for MVFHR's "Prevention, Not Execution" project, and we're grateful for that collaborative help.
As TAVP summarizes it, in this interview Tina "recalls her brother as a child, the mental and social changes he began to manifest as a teenager, and the severe mental illness he began to display after he was raped at the age of 17. She also describes her family's ongoing but futile struggle to find effective mental health services for James. Mr. Colburn acknowledged that he killed Peggy Murphy; the State of Texas acknowledged that Mr. Colburn was seriously mentally ill. Nevertheless, the Montgomery County jury sentenced Mr. Colburn to death. The case attracted national and international criticism."
Other excerpts are from interviews with Ireland and Jamaal Beazley, father and brother, respectively, of Napoleon Beazley, who was executed in Texas in 2002. TAVP's summary explains: "Napoleon Beazley was 17 years old on April 19, 1994, when he fatally shot Mr. John Luttig in Tyler, Smith County, Texas. The death sentence and execution of Napoleon Beazley sparked international protest because many nations, and states within the U.S. had banned the death penalty for people who were juveniles at the time of their crimes. Within three years of the execution of Napoleon Beazley, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) banned the practice. "
One is from their interview with Tina Duroy, whose brother James Colburn was executed in 2003. The Texas After Violence Project conducted this particular interview specifically for MVFHR's "Prevention, Not Execution" project, and we're grateful for that collaborative help.
As TAVP summarizes it, in this interview Tina "recalls her brother as a child, the mental and social changes he began to manifest as a teenager, and the severe mental illness he began to display after he was raped at the age of 17. She also describes her family's ongoing but futile struggle to find effective mental health services for James. Mr. Colburn acknowledged that he killed Peggy Murphy; the State of Texas acknowledged that Mr. Colburn was seriously mentally ill. Nevertheless, the Montgomery County jury sentenced Mr. Colburn to death. The case attracted national and international criticism."
Other excerpts are from interviews with Ireland and Jamaal Beazley, father and brother, respectively, of Napoleon Beazley, who was executed in Texas in 2002. TAVP's summary explains: "Napoleon Beazley was 17 years old on April 19, 1994, when he fatally shot Mr. John Luttig in Tyler, Smith County, Texas. The death sentence and execution of Napoleon Beazley sparked international protest because many nations, and states within the U.S. had banned the death penalty for people who were juveniles at the time of their crimes. Within three years of the execution of Napoleon Beazley, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) banned the practice. "
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sharing and Fellowship
Renny Cushing is heading down to Tennessee today to speak at a gathering organized by the Sharing Our Stories: Murder Victims' Families Speak program of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK). The event will be "a time of learning, sharing, and fellowship," as TCASK's invitation describes it. Renny will talk about his personal experience as a survivor of a murder victim and his work with MVFHR.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Victims' Voices are Essential
This story is featured in the August/September issue of New England Psychologist
Report shows impact of mental illness, death penalty
By Catherine Robertson Souter
When Manny Babbitt's brother, Bill, turned him in to the police in 1980, he knew he was doing the right thing. He believed his brother, who was mentally ill, was involved in a murder.
What he didn't know was that he was handing his brother over to his eventual executioners rather than to a system that would help to cure him, something he has had to live with for nearly 30 years.
"I spoke with the police for hours about Manny and they said that they would help him. I believed them," Bill remembers.
Bill said Manny had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at Bridgewater State Hospital in 1973 and was later determined to be suffering from PTSD as a result of two tours of duty in Vietnam.
He was executed at San Quentin Prison in California in 1999 after a lengthy appeals process. The fact that Manny had lived through some of the worst trauma, both in Vietnam and during his poverty-level childhood in a Cape Verdean neighborhood in Wareham, Mass., was not seen as relevant to the case and not presented to jurors. At the time of his execution, then-California Gov. Gray Davis was quoted as saying, "Countless people have suffered the ravages of war...but such experiences cannot justify or mitigate the savage beating and killing of defenseless, law-abiding citizens."
The difficult part of any conversation about the death penalty, even where mental illness is concerned, is that it is understandable that victims' families demand retribution. A "not guilty due to insanity" label does not seem to serve justice. In popular culture, people often say someone "got off on an insanity plea," as if this plea is a loophole in the system.
In July, Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) released a report sharing the stories of those affected by mental illness and the death penalty. The report, produced by MVHFR and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, features what appear to be disparate voices on the subject: the families of the perpetrators and the families of the victims. Based on interviews with 21 families, the report pleads the case for reformation of the mental health system rather than execution.
"We felt that the victims' voices are essential in this," said MVHFR staff member Susannah Sheffer, who wrote the report. "People believe that victims' families would want the death penalty, saying, 'if it happened in your family you wouldn't be against the death penalty.'"
"But this shows that victims' families do not all feel one way about the death penalty. These people have a powerful voice. You can't argue with the legitimacy of these voices," she adds.
For Julie Nelson of Massachusetts, whose father George, a Lutheran minister, was killed in California in 1979 by the mentally ill son of one of his parishioners, taking that man's life would not have given her closure or justice.
"I think that the state killing people just reinforces death at the societal level," she says. "I am against the death penalty in general but I also think that the death penalty for the mentally ill is just barbaric."
Joe Bruce happens to sit on both sides of this particular fence. He and his wife, Amy, first realized that their son Willy was very ill in 2003, when he was 22-years-old. After a series of hospitalizations, each time being released because he could not be held longer than 30 days or forced to take his medication unless he had been violent, Willy was sent home. In June 2006, after he was returned to his parents, he killed his mother, because he believed her to be an Al Qaeda operative.
"We were unable to get proper treatment for him," Joe says. "If we had been facing the death penalty on top of that, we would be looking at 20 years of appeals only to see him lethally injected when we knew from day one that he was not responsible for what he had done."
Read the rest of the article.
Report shows impact of mental illness, death penalty
By Catherine Robertson Souter
When Manny Babbitt's brother, Bill, turned him in to the police in 1980, he knew he was doing the right thing. He believed his brother, who was mentally ill, was involved in a murder.
What he didn't know was that he was handing his brother over to his eventual executioners rather than to a system that would help to cure him, something he has had to live with for nearly 30 years.
"I spoke with the police for hours about Manny and they said that they would help him. I believed them," Bill remembers.
Bill said Manny had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at Bridgewater State Hospital in 1973 and was later determined to be suffering from PTSD as a result of two tours of duty in Vietnam.
He was executed at San Quentin Prison in California in 1999 after a lengthy appeals process. The fact that Manny had lived through some of the worst trauma, both in Vietnam and during his poverty-level childhood in a Cape Verdean neighborhood in Wareham, Mass., was not seen as relevant to the case and not presented to jurors. At the time of his execution, then-California Gov. Gray Davis was quoted as saying, "Countless people have suffered the ravages of war...but such experiences cannot justify or mitigate the savage beating and killing of defenseless, law-abiding citizens."
The difficult part of any conversation about the death penalty, even where mental illness is concerned, is that it is understandable that victims' families demand retribution. A "not guilty due to insanity" label does not seem to serve justice. In popular culture, people often say someone "got off on an insanity plea," as if this plea is a loophole in the system.
In July, Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) released a report sharing the stories of those affected by mental illness and the death penalty. The report, produced by MVHFR and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, features what appear to be disparate voices on the subject: the families of the perpetrators and the families of the victims. Based on interviews with 21 families, the report pleads the case for reformation of the mental health system rather than execution.
"We felt that the victims' voices are essential in this," said MVHFR staff member Susannah Sheffer, who wrote the report. "People believe that victims' families would want the death penalty, saying, 'if it happened in your family you wouldn't be against the death penalty.'"
"But this shows that victims' families do not all feel one way about the death penalty. These people have a powerful voice. You can't argue with the legitimacy of these voices," she adds.
For Julie Nelson of Massachusetts, whose father George, a Lutheran minister, was killed in California in 1979 by the mentally ill son of one of his parishioners, taking that man's life would not have given her closure or justice.
"I think that the state killing people just reinforces death at the societal level," she says. "I am against the death penalty in general but I also think that the death penalty for the mentally ill is just barbaric."
Joe Bruce happens to sit on both sides of this particular fence. He and his wife, Amy, first realized that their son Willy was very ill in 2003, when he was 22-years-old. After a series of hospitalizations, each time being released because he could not be held longer than 30 days or forced to take his medication unless he had been violent, Willy was sent home. In June 2006, after he was returned to his parents, he killed his mother, because he believed her to be an Al Qaeda operative.
"We were unable to get proper treatment for him," Joe says. "If we had been facing the death penalty on top of that, we would be looking at 20 years of appeals only to see him lethally injected when we knew from day one that he was not responsible for what he had done."
Read the rest of the article.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Upcoming Mass. event
For our Massachusetts readers, MVFHR board member Robert Meeropol will be speaking at an event commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the wrongful execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti on August 23rd; this event is organized (as it is each year) by the Hampden County Chapter of Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty. Event details are on their site.
The MVFHR office will be closed and "For Victims, Against the Death Penalty" on a posting break until the week of August 24th. Until then, best wishes to all readers during these summer days.
The MVFHR office will be closed and "For Victims, Against the Death Penalty" on a posting break until the week of August 24th. Until then, best wishes to all readers during these summer days.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Welcome Marie Verzulli
We welcome Marie Verzulli to the MVFHR Board of Directors. Marie has worked for several years as the Victims’ Family Outreach Liaison for New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, facilitating a group called Family and Friends of Homicide Victims. She is masterful at forming connections with other victims' families and developing alliances with groups and individuals who may not be explicitly anti-death penalty but who share our goals of helping victims and preventing violence.
Marie's 29-year-old sister was one of eight women murdered by serial killer Kendall Francois in Poughkeepsie, New York during 1996 and 1997. In her page in MVFHR's Gallery of Victims' Stories, Marie says, “I had never thought much about the death penalty until the day in 1998 when the District Attorney asked me how I felt. I told him that I had never really thought about it. I couldn’t imagine what, if anything, could bring me comfort or lessen my pain and despair, but I knew it wasn’t that. The most perverse part of this unfair and costly death penalty process is that the murderer achieves a kind of celebrity while the pain and anguish of the murder victim’s family members is forgotten or just seems to fall between the cracks.”
Marie's 29-year-old sister was one of eight women murdered by serial killer Kendall Francois in Poughkeepsie, New York during 1996 and 1997. In her page in MVFHR's Gallery of Victims' Stories, Marie says, “I had never thought much about the death penalty until the day in 1998 when the District Attorney asked me how I felt. I told him that I had never really thought about it. I couldn’t imagine what, if anything, could bring me comfort or lessen my pain and despair, but I knew it wasn’t that. The most perverse part of this unfair and costly death penalty process is that the murderer achieves a kind of celebrity while the pain and anguish of the murder victim’s family members is forgotten or just seems to fall between the cracks.”
Friday, July 31, 2009
If you had told me
We have written in the past about the film Love Lived on Death Row, which tells the story of the Syriani family. (The Syrianis came to oppose the execution of their father, who had been sentenced to death for killing their mother.)
The filmmaker, Linda Booker, has written a guest post on the Dallas Morning News death penalty blog. Here's the opening paragraph:
If you had told me four years ago on the day I received my Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University that my first major project would feature the death penalty issue, I probably would have smiled politely and said, "I doubt that." It wasn't an issue I had extreme feelings about one way or the other. But several weeks later as I was checking the weather on our local TV station's website, a headline caught my eye: "Family Forgives Father For A Mother's Death." I immediately felt inexplicably compelled to make a documentary about this family's amazing story of forgiveness. What I didn't know then is that checking the weather that day would change my life and some of my beliefs as I went on to produce a feature length film about the Syriani siblings' story and their experience with North Carolina's system of justice and the media as they faced their father's impending execution.
The discussion among those commenting on this post is pretty heated; some of our readers may want to join in.
The filmmaker, Linda Booker, has written a guest post on the Dallas Morning News death penalty blog. Here's the opening paragraph:
If you had told me four years ago on the day I received my Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University that my first major project would feature the death penalty issue, I probably would have smiled politely and said, "I doubt that." It wasn't an issue I had extreme feelings about one way or the other. But several weeks later as I was checking the weather on our local TV station's website, a headline caught my eye: "Family Forgives Father For A Mother's Death." I immediately felt inexplicably compelled to make a documentary about this family's amazing story of forgiveness. What I didn't know then is that checking the weather that day would change my life and some of my beliefs as I went on to produce a feature length film about the Syriani siblings' story and their experience with North Carolina's system of justice and the media as they faced their father's impending execution.
The discussion among those commenting on this post is pretty heated; some of our readers may want to join in.
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