The Penalty showcases the impact of the death penalty on the lawyers, the murder victims and the families of someone who is wrongfully convicted of murder. It follows the stories of a man wrongly convicted who spent 15 years on death row; a lawyer fighting against increasingly inhumane, botched executions; and a mother battling against the state's pursuit of the dealth penalty for her daughter's murderer.

 

 

Watch the film anytime from now until  at 6 pm Dec. 30 ....it will end  at almost 7:30pm when we will begin our discussion: https://vimeo.com/486373089/3e711422d1

Then join the Discussion Dec. 30th at 7:30pm  immediately after the film:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85660299188?pwd=SlVYd3QrWDVJd3BMRjEyZTIweUZXZz09

 

We viewers will be watching this film in the middle of five federal executions scheduled by the Trump administration days for Dec. and Jan. ending just before Pres. elect Biden's Inauguration: The first scheduled for Dec. 10, on   International Human Rights Day, and the others are scheduled for  Dec. 11, Jan. 12, Jan. 14, and Jan. 15. Four to be executed are Black.The  fifth, a white woman, is the only woman currently on federal death row.

 

 

Joining us  to discuss the film will be:

*Local resident Susannah Sheffer,  a writer and researcher focusing on the impact of the death penalty on its various stakeholders. A therapist working at a community mental health agency and in private practice here in the Pioneer Valley, she developed numerous written materials for Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, a national organization of family members of homicide victims and family members of people who have been executed. She is the author of the 2019 Texas After Violence Project report Nobody To Talk To: Barriers to Treatment for Family Members of Individuals Sentenced to Death or Executed, and the 2013 book Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys, which was based on interviews with 20 attorneys who had lost clients to execution. 

 

*Walter C. Long, an attorney practicing appellate law in Austin, Texas,  founded the Texas After Violence Project in 2007 hoping it might help foster dialogue between Texans on all sides of the death penalty debate about the human needs revealed in the stories collected by the project, so that Texans might move beyond polarized discussions and seek together a less violent future. With strong interests in human rights and restorative justice, Walter has found that his most rewarding work as an attorney has been past years of litigation on the juvenile death penalty issue and more recent law/psychology public policy advocacy for recognition of the death penalty as a trauma-inducing system and a public health concern. 

Trailer for The Penalty: https://www.amazon.com/Penalty-Will-Francome/dp/B07V6T1H1X/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+penalty+film&qid=1606493032&sr=8-2

The Frances Crowe Film Series is also co-sponsored by The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice in the Pioneer Valley (TRC), www.theresistancecenter.org.