Film "Six Arguments against the Death Penalty" presented online
The first film in the series "Six Arguments against the Death Penalty" appeared on the Internet today. Human rights activists and public figures, defendants and their families stress the shortcomings of the judicial system, the existence of torture in Belarusian prisons, lack of preventive effect of the death penalty. They call on the government to abandon capital punishment.
The documentary is directed by Siarhei Isakou.
The first episode covers the irreversibility of the death penalty, the possibility of a miscarriage of justice. There may be a court decision to kill an innocent person, but he or she cannot be resurrected. The film provides examples of real cases when which innocent people were either executed or held on death row.
In the second film, the audience will learn that the people who carry out executions develop deformed mentality, since to deprive a person of life is a huge stress. The state pays the executioner money for murder.
The third film is dedicated to the moral aspect – the human being has no right to take the life of another person, as murder is not justice.
In addition, the death penalty does not prevent new crimes. The death penalty is ineffective, since its presence does not reduce the number of serious crimes. And vice versa, in countries where the death penalty was abolished, there are few crimes. And this is the fourth argument for the abolition of the capital punishment.
In countries with dictatorial regimes the death penalty could be used to crack down on political opponents, as well as to eliminate witnesses to crimes committed by the authorities. This issue is considered in the fifth film of the series.
The death penalty is also torture for the relatives. In Belarus the body of the executed person is not given for burial, the burial place remains a secret, and the death certificate has a blank space across the "cause of death". This aspect is spoken about in the last film.
