How Films and Faith Informed My Views on the Death Penalty

Cinema and Christianity played an important role in shaping my political opinions, including those concerning state-sponsored executions

NOTE: This article was a response to a Cinemania prompt on Medium. It is a little outside my usual parameters in the way it discusses my personal faith in relation to my views on the death penalty and the part certain films played in shaping those views. I hope you find it interesting.

Dead Man Walking (1995). Credit: Gramercy Pictures/Polygram Filmed Entertainment

Warning: Contains spoilers for the films discussed

Political opinions are often shaped by experience and upbringing, but in my case, cinema and my evolving Christian faith had a key part to play. My views on many important subjects were informed by films and my belief in God, including the question of state-sponsored executions. I am firmly against the death penalty, but what contributed to my arrival at that conclusion?

Obviously, my opinion is not solely based on what I’m about to discuss. Probably my biggest single reason for being anti-capital punishment is that the wrong person sometimes gets executed (the case of Timothy Evans, for example). As for the argument that capital punishment is a deterrent, many studies have cast doubt on this claim (for instance, this study by Amnesty International). But I won’t get into these arguments here. I simply mention them to point out there are other factors I’ve considered.