It’s Oscar season. And that’s great, because I like movies. I’m not a buff or anything, which is why I wrote “movies” and not “film” or “cinema”. But I enjoy a good flick. As someone who campaigns for death penalty abolition, I’m especially interested this year because there is a death penalty film, Paradise Lost 3, nominated for Best Documentary.
Movies can be a powerful tool for raising awareness about an issue, or even inspiring people to take action. In our death penalty abolition work, we have tried to promote movies we think will do that.
But what do we know?
That’s where you come in. Please go to our Abolish the Death Penalty Facebook page and give us your pick for the best death penalty movie of all time (definition: a movie about capital punishment, or featuring it in some significant way). Some of our favorites include The Green Mile, Dead Man Walking, In Cold Blood, The Exonerated, and of course the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men.
Unlike the Oscars, we won’t arbitrarily segregate documentaries and works of fiction. And we don’t care about released in theaters versus made for TV. Just tell us whatever you think is the best.