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THE EMPTY CHAIR
Death Penalty Yes or No

This 42-minute documentary tells four stories of murder victims' families reliving the crimes and confronting the loss of loved ones. Their instinct for revenge during trial and the debate for punishment by death climaxes in a search to forgive and heal.


Filmmakers Jacqui Lofaro & Victor Teich
Awarded Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award
for Excellence in Coverage of Capital Punishment

The Death Penalty Information Center's 10th annnual Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards, held at the National Press Club in Washington DC on June 26, 2006, honored journalists who have made exceptional contributions to the undersanding of problems associated with capital punishment. This year's award recipients included Jacqui Lofaro and Victor Teich of Justice Productions for their documentary THE EMPTY CHAIR.

The Empty Chair, 5 years in the making debuted at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2003 and was later invited to screen at the Vermont International Human Rights Film Festival. Amnesty International selected the documentary to screen in 700 locations across the country during the National Weekend of Faith in Action in 2005 and 2006. DPIC awarded the film the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Broadcast Journalism Award in 2006.

 

THE EMPTY CHAIR is a 42-minute documentary film that intimately reveals a rarely seen view of murder's aftermath: families left behind, their lives torn apart by the random loss of a loved one.

The Empty Chair tells four stories of murder victims' families reliving the crimes and confronting the loss of loved ones. Their instinct for revenge during trial and the debate for punishment by death climaxes in a search to forgive and heal.


Sue Norton - her step-parents are murdered yet she is compelled not only to forgive the killer, but to forge a friendship with him.

Renny Cushing - his father is shot gunned to death yet he lobbies for victims' rights and against the death penalty.

Suse & Peter Lowenstein - their 21-year old son is bombed out of the sky over Lockerbie but they can never forgive the terrorists.

Susan Gove Ramunda - her daughter is bludgeoned to death and she works tirelessly to keep the death penalty state law.

Click here to download THE EMPTY CHAIR discussion guide.

Renny Cushing at father's grave
Suse Lowenstein sculpting
Susan Gove Ramunda & daughter

THE EMPTY CHAIR
Reviews

What reviewers and audiences have said:

"The powerful emotional impact of the film provoked serious discussion about the death penalty. The pain, sadness, strength and spirit of the four families involved evoked numerous letters of gratitude and new commitment to join this struggle."

  • Blanche Wiesen Cook, Professor at John Jay College and
    author of Eleanor Roosevelt biographies

"It brought me into an emotional relationship with the death penalty issues, which is so different from an intellectual one."

"There was no moralistic voice-over narration to interfere with the flow of expressed pain, sadness, strength and spirit in the four stories."

"It makes life out of death."

"Hearing directly from murder victims' families created an incredible intimacy with them."

"It is powerful because it is STORY and because the stories are sheer humanness."

"Presents an unflinching yet dignified glimpse into
lives forever changed."

  • Michael Colello, SOUTHAMPTON INDEPENDENT

"A documentary that considers all sides of the story."

  • Carissa Katz, THE EASTHAMPTON STAR

"Whenever any of us are taken by violence, by death, the chair at the table becomes empty because none of us can ever be replaced."

  • Sister Helen Prejean, author "DEAD MAN WALKING"


THE EMPTY CHAIR
Take Action

These resources offer both information and direct actions for our viewers.

MVFR
Founded in 1976, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation is a national organization of family members of both homicide and state killings who oppose the death penalty in all cases. For more information, go to: http://mvfr.com

MVFH founded in 2005, Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, pledged victims' family members and other allies to end the death penalty around the world. For more information, go to: www.murdervictimsfamilies.org

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
Restorative Justice is a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing the wounds of victims, offenders and communities caused or revealed by the criminal behavior. Practices and programs reflecting restorative purposes will respond to crime by: (a) identifying and taking steps to repair harm, (b) involving all stakeholders, and (c) transforming the traditional relationship between communities and their governments in responding to crime.
For more information, go to:
http://www.restorativejustice.org/

There are a number of national efforts and organizations focused on ending the death penalty.

ACLU
Support the American Civic Liberties Union efforts to pass the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act (S. 132), seeking to correct the flaws in the capital punishment system and prevent any additional executions from taking place until these problems are addressed.

Despite its own study showing racial and geographic disparities in the use of the federal death penalty, the U.S. government continues to carry out executions. In the past year, federal judges in New York and Vermont have ruled the federal death penalty unconstitutional because of concerns ranging from the likelihood of executing someone who is actually innocent to the lack of due process safeguards in the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act.
http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenalty.cfm?ID=9960&c=67

Amnesty International
Founded in London in 1961, Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with over 1.8 million members worldwide. Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights. One of their major campaigns is an effort to abolish the death penalty. For more information, go to:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/index.do

Read their article on the participation of religious and spiritual groups in National Initiative to Focus Attention on the Death Penalty: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/document.do?id=55C7D185C0B5B7D285256F35006D04C4

Death Penalty Information Center
The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. For more information, go to:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/


Learn about the organizations committed to retaining the death penalty.

CJLF
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation was established in 1982 as a nonprofit, public interest law organization dedicated to restoring a balance between the rights of crime victims and the criminally accused. The Foundation's purpose is to assure that people who are guilty of committing crimes receive swift and certain punishment in an orderly and thoroughly constitutional manner. For more information, go to:
http://www.cjlf.org/

NDAA
The National District Attorney's Association supports the death penalty; they offer resources reflecting their viewpoints on their website. Go to:
http://www.ndaa.org/issues/death_penalty.html

NAPO
The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) is a coalition of police unions and associations from across the United States that serves to advance the interests of America's law enforcement officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. For more information, go to:
http://www.napo.org/