“The Penalty,” the acclaimed documentary that goes behind the scenes of some of the biggest headlines in the recent history of America’s death penalty, will be premiering in several California cities at this month.
The film documents a state’s scramble to develop a lethal injection protocol and an attorney desperate to prevent a “botched” and torturous execution; a man’s attempts to put his life back together after spending 15 years on death row for a crime he did not commit; and the family of a murdered young woman, torn apart by the state’s pursuit of the death penalty in the resulting trial.
Film co-director Will Francome and producer Laura Shacham will join local criminal justice reform advocates after each screening in discussion about their personal and professional experiences with the death penalty, and how this brutal punishment affects all aspects of American society.
“With this film we wanted to examine capital punishment through the stories of some extraordinary people who have to deal with the death penalty in their daily lives” says Francome. “By taking viewers on this journey with them, we hope they will come away with a new understanding of just how much the death penalty brutalizes all of us, whether consciously or not.”
“So much has been written about the death penalty that it becomes easy for people who have already made up their minds about it to tune out the usual arguments” says Death Penalty Focus President Mike Farrell. “But with The Penalty, you’re seeing and hearing from real people who have been victimized by this barbaric system, and the evidence of the toll it has taken on them can’t be denied.”
The tour begins with two screenings in the Bay Area on Monday, September 17, followed by three showings in Southern California between September 19 and 21. Click here for more information, including tickets, venues, and show times, or for more information about the film and filmmakers, click here.