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Movie Vault: 8 Films About the Death Penalty, Ranked

Here is a list of movies in which the death penalty is prominently featured

Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash

With the botched execution in Tennessee, capital punishment has been in the headlines lately. I wrote an opinion piece on the matter myself: Cruel and Unusual: It’s Time To End the Barbaric Practice of Capital Punishment

Regardless of which side of the issue you fall on, movies that prominently feature the death penalty can be especially poignant. Many films have handled the drama and emotion of a character facing death masterfully.

Here is a list of eight movies that feature capital punishment prominently, ranked by how good I thought they were.

8. The Chamber (1996)

Based on the novel by John Grisham by the same name, the 1996 movie, The Chamber, was directed by James Foley. It starred Gene Hackman, Chris O’Donnell, and Faye Dunaway.

It is about a young lawyer trying to make a final appeal for his racist grandfather before he is put to death for a civil rights bombing that killed two children.

Although the book by Grisham was popular, the movie failed at the box office. It cost over $40 million to make and…