Deadline (2004), After Innocence (2005), A Short Film About Killing (1988), Shot in the Heart (2001), Unveiled (2005), Compulsion (1959), The Executioner's Song (1982), Into the Abyss (2011) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Capital Punishment movies.
Storyline: In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan ordered a moratorium on the death penalty after university students uncovered new evidence proving the innocence of 13 men on death row. This documentary follows the hearings held by a panel Ryan appointed to study the issue and interviews activists, scholars and prisoners, while examining the history of the American death penalty. As Ryan's time in office comes to an end, he must decide what steps to take to reform the judicial system.
Plot Keywords: governor, student, author, warden, judge, activist, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Following the stories of seven exonerated prisoners, "After Innocence" documents how DNA evidence led to the release of these wrongfully imprisoned, innocent men. Free after years -- and in some cases decades -- behind bars and on death row, these men struggle to transition back into society with inadequate support from the judicial system that wronged them. "After Innocence" brings to light flaws in the criminal justice system and the need for reform.
Plot Keywords: innocent man, ex-convict, activist, cop, soldier, father, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A young lawyer (Krzysztof Globisz) in Warsaw represents a drifter (Mirosław Baka) who killed a malicious cabdriver (Jan Tesarz).
Plot Keywords: troubled youth, taxi driver, defense attorney, girl, wife, judge, brutal ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The brother of condemned killer Gary Gilmore comes to terms with his brother's crimes and his family's violent legacy.
Plot Keywords: brother, murderer, death row inmate, journalist, mother, chilling, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Iranian interpreter Fariba (Jasmin Tabatabai) escapes to Germany to avoid capital punishment for homosexual activity, but her application for political asylum is denied. Awaiting deportation, Fariba gains a new identity when fellow Iranian refugee Siamak (Navid Akhavan) kills himself. Disguising herself as a male, Fariba is released from detention as Siamak. Fariba begins working in a small-town factory while saving money for a fake passport that will let her live as a woman again.
Plot Keywords: interpreter, activist, single mother, coworker, refugee, sad, gritty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1924 Chicago, Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner are friends and fellow law students who both come from wealthy backgrounds. They have few true friends as they believe all their contemporaries are intellectually inferior. Within their relationship, Artie is the dominant and Judd the submissive who says he will do whatever Artie tells him. Although Judd acts intellectually arrogant to others, he also shows signs of weakness and reticence most evident to Artie. Part of their goal in life is to experience how it feels to do everything. As such, they plot to commit what they consider the perfect crime - a kidnapping and murder - not only so that they can experience the sense of killing for killing's sake, but also taunt the law with the knowledge of it and their superiority after the fact. They believe their crime is above the law. Their murder of young Paulie Kessler is not so perfect, with evidence at the scene uncovered by one of their law school colleagues, Sid Brooks, who also works for the Globe newspaper. As Artie and Judd try to manipulate their way out of how the evidence may implicate them, their manipulation ultimately backfires and they are charged with the murder. The most famed trial lawyer in town, Jonathan Wilk, is hired to defend the pair despite his atheism being against the families' sensibilities. Jonathan, renowned for his ability to manipulate juries, has to decide how best to defend his clients in the overwhelming face of evidence against them. The testimony of Ruth Evans, Sid's girlfriend, may have some impact on the trial's outcome.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: college student, lawyer, judge, police officer, witness, juror, fiery ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In this fact-based film, Gary Gilmore (Tommy Lee Jones), an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker (Rosanna Arquette), a teenaged single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
Plot Keywords: convict, single mother, cousin, political activist, entrepreneur, uncle, shocking ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Into the abyss explores a triple murder which occurred in the small Texas City of Conroe in 2001. Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, murdered a middle-aged housewife; they then gunned down her stepson and his friend. The film features Conversations with the two inmates and those affected by their crime. Unlike many of the films that deal with crimes, into the abyss isn't concerned with figuring out exactly what happened, but rather serves as an examination of why people - and the state - kill.—Brad
Plot Keywords: werner herzog, filmmaker, candidate, emotional, texas, cell, capital punishment ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The true story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos who was convicted of luring men to their death and eventually executed in 2002. In 1989, she was working as a prostitute and finally makes a friend when she meets and begins a relationship with a young woman, Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, she tries to find legitimate work but with little education and limited social skills, she fails at every turn. She starts working as a hooker hitching rides along the local interstate highway and after robbing a few clients has an encounter with a vicious client whom she kills in self-defense. After that however she just takes to killing clients taking their money and car. Once arrested she claims self-defense but is eventually convicted.
Plot Keywords: prostitute, john, girl, judge, disturbing, brutal, florida ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Biopic of Sarabjit Singh, a farmer residing at Bhikiwind, Punjab, near the Indo-Pak border, crossed the border after having a couple of drinks. However, he was mistaken to be an Indian spy and was sentenced with capital punishment.
Plot Keywords: brother, sister, mother, wife, gripping, intense, powerful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Tom Garrett's a reporter on leave from his job. As Tom's having difficulty writing the book, his boss, publisher Austin Spencer, suggests he write a non-fiction book on capital punishment, The pair set out to frame Tom for a murder he didn't commit in order to eradicate capital punishment.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: novelist, publisher, daughter, district attorney, assistant, dancer, tense ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A crook's ex-wife marries the state's governor, and the crook sees an opportunity to make some money by threatening to expose his wife's past if the governor doesn't pay him off. The crook's son, who is also a criminal, doesn't want to see his mother disgraced and determines to stop his father, but things don't turn out the way he planned.—frankfob2@yahoo.com
Plot Keywords: blackmailer, governor, wife, mother, son, father, melodramatic ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals. His superior, Regan, however, realizes that even prisoners are human beings, and Regan is sick of the eye-for-an-eye attitude that leads the state to execute condemned men, or "quare fellows." Crimmins begins to see that not all is black and white in his new world, and when he becomes involved with Kathleen, the wife of one of the condemned men, his attitude begins to change. When new evidence arises to suggest that Kathleen's husband may not deserve his fate, Crimmins is torn between his duty and his humanity.—Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
Plot Keywords: guard, prisoner, warden, doctor, mistress, colleague, brooding ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A film version of author Gilles Perrault's best-selling book about the 1976 trial and execution of Christian Ranucci, the youth who was convicted with extremely inconclusive evidence of murdering an eight-year-old girl in Southern France. The publicity the book and film helped abolish capital punishment in France in 1981.—T P Uschanov <tuschano@cc.helsinki.fi>
Plot Keywords: young man, mother, judge, police detective, lawyer, dark, disheartening ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) is facing the electric chair for the murder of a young girl. Eight years after the crime, he calls in Paul Armstrong (Sir Sean Connery), a professor of law, to help prove his innocence. Armstrong quickly uncovers some overlooked evidence to present to the local police, but they aren't interested, Bobby was their killer.
Plot Keywords: professor, sheriff, serial killer, death row inmate, wife, daughter, brash ...
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