4%

The theatre production of Dead Man Walking has opened my eyes in a number of ways.

Reading a book on something as serious as the death penalty is more personal, but a reader tends to stray away from the story and often drones out. This happens to me several times a book, but a visual production of the play with real people in a real situation seems to capture my attention.

A group of my friends got together to support a close friend in the production, and at first, the play seemed unrealistic and slowly moving. I wondered if it was going to pick up, but as soon as the convict's mother stepped onto the stage I began to think about how she must feel to inevitably face the reality of losing her only son. The skill of her acting added to the realistic properties of the play.

See and hearing Matthew, the convict, actually speak to Sister Helen Prejean added life to and a soul to death penalty, and I have come to the realization that the death penalty does not only punish and effect the criminal but also the family directed related to them. Once the convict is dead, that is it. There is no more suffering, if you discard the notion of an afterlife. The only people that suffer are the family, and the government will have wasted millions of dollars on someone they view worthless enough to kill.

Life in prison costs about the same as killing someone, and I believe that there could be a use for someone who has life in prison. They could test medications or do surveys on them, make them work to build houses for charities, anything, and the family can still rest in solace that their loved one is still alive, albeit locked in a cage forever.

I person who has stolen someone else's life does not deserve to roam free, but killing them because they have killed seems to be hypocritical.