Dahlia Lithwick has a piece in Slate attacking the idea that "closure" is provided by execution. This is one of those things where you can have great analysis that boils down to a fairly simple truth -- the only "closure" there is in these situations concerns the people killed, as in their life on earth has been closed. The survivors live on, suffer on, and so forth. There might be some "resolution," but even then, only imperfect in scope. Maybe, this is enough -- no penalty is likely to be a perfect fit. But, the death penalty is problem filled. Imperfect closure does not save things.
[One person, who defends death row inmates, suggests life in prison is a better "resolution." The family does not have to relive the experience at sentencing hearings and the person is locked away. But, the family will have to relive it at trial and other places, most likely. And, some will fear the person will get out somehow, or consider merely living is too much. This will -- like the father below -- eat away at them. So, life without parole is imperfect as well.]
The piece calls to mind a very good Iranian film -- its cinema is rightly honored for its gems -- entitled Beautiful City (an ironic name for a prison). The film is based on the Iranian rule that a person can be saved from execution if the representative of the victim supplies a pardon. A sixteen year old murderer has reached maturity, so is eligible for execution. A fellow prisoner -- due out shortly after serving time for theft -- recklessly thinks providing a celebration for his 18th birthday is a good idea. Told why the person was not happy, the prisoner decides to try to obtain that pardon. The film takes us along for the ride, the murderer's sister and the victim's family complicating things considerably.
It is a tragic story, told in the deliberate way with focus on the characters (often young, even children) typical for the country's films. The basic idea arises from practices foreign to ours, but the film retains universal characteristics. The people, down to a sympathetic prison official, seem quite ordinary. They can very well be Americans. And, thus, such films make it more difficult to consider such people as truly "alien" -- people who we can stereotype and now consider on some basic level -- even more than basic -- like you and me. I simply cannot on some level comprehend the sense of "other" many are willing and/or able to put them in.
On some level ... the ability to formulate an "other" based on what turns out to be largely arbitrary characteristics is fairly typical. But, on some level it is quite foreign to our traditions, which understands some basic equality among the differences. And, the cinema is a small way to reaffirm the point.
Anyway, even without the theorizing, it was a good film. The acting in particular is worth noting.