Keep an eye out for Nick Broomfield's new documentary, Aileen: The Life
and Death of a Serial Killer, which I just saw at the Toronto film
festival. It's a sequel to his 1991 film on Aileen Wuornos - he was called
to testify at her final appeal before her execution and quite a bit of it
is shot on death row. In addition to the other fiction films that folks
have recommended, I'd also suggest the Italian film Open Doors from 1991.
I can't remember how much (if any) of it narrates death row per se, but
its a fascinating film about a judge's moral wrestling with capital
punishment.
As for literature, I published an essay called 'Face to Face with the Dead
Man: Ethical Responsibility, State-Sanctioned Killing and Empathetic
Impossibility' (its a Levinasian reading of Dead Man Walking) in David
Campbell and Michael Shapiro (eds), _Moral Spaces: Rethinking Ethics and
World Politics_, University of Minnesota Press. There's also a piece by
Austin Sarat on Dead Man Walking and Last Dance in his edited book called
_The Killing State: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics and Culture_
(Oxford University Press).
cheers,
Patricia Molloy
|