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Dead Man Walking

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Dead Man Walking
Many people have very strong feelings about the use of capital punishment. Some people including myself believe that the death penalty gives murders what they deserve, while others believe killing anyone is wrong. When I first saw Matthew Poncelet I could have sworn that he wasn’t an innocent man, I thought that the movie would be about a nun who freed an innocent man, but I was way off. I grew to realize throughout the duration of the movie that he wasn't as evil that he was made out to be and the movie made me more on the fence on the debate of capital punishment. There are many arguments made in the movie that are against the death penalty. The main argument for against the death penalty would be how Sister Helen is trying to get Matthew Poncelet off of death row. Matthew Poncelet is poor, which is a reason why he is given the death penalty in my eyes. He couldn’t afford to pay for a good lawyer so the court appointed an attorney which only raised one objection in the trail. This shows that Poncelet’s lawyer did nothing at all to help him in his charges. If Matthew would have been able to afford a better lawyer like Carl Vitello then there would have been a higher chance that he would have received life in prison instead of the death penalty. People should not receive the death penalty simply because they grew up in poverty they should be appointed a lawyer that will do everything they can for their defendant. Then again Matthew was also a victim of bad politics by he wasn’t given another trail when Matthew lawyer Hilton Baber explained that he didn’t get the proper defense at his original trail. He goes on to even argue that the only reason that most men on death row are there is because they are not wealthy, so they cannot afford a good lawyer. Also the governor turned down Matthew’s request for an appeal and speed up the execution date

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