Skip to main content

Interview with Mary Stennett Sellers, Mother of Death Row Inmate

 Today, I am going to introduce the interview with a person who is a mosther of death row inmate.


A Mother’s Grief: Interview with Mary Stennett Sellers, Mother of Death Row Inmate

Matthew Puckett who was convicted for murder and executed by the state of Mississipi in 2012. Mary Stennett Sellers was the mother of him. 

- "Before Matt's arrest, did you believe in the death penalty? (Arpin, Jamie, 2019)"
She answers that she has never really thought of the death penalty because it was irelevet from her life and she had never thought if she is for or against it. Although she sometimes sees the report of the execution of criminals, she never really registered. She has thought of the victim's family's feelings but did not have any idea of thikng about the convicted's family. 

- "When a person is imprisoned — even more so when they are put on death row — people view their families as somehow responsible as well. Did you experience that? In what ways? (Arpin, Jamie, 2019)"

She agrees that she felt having a lot of resposibilities from at the very beginning. She said that they knew more about the crime than they said they did. They "had no experience with the criminal system, the courts, the jails or the people that worked in these areas. (Arpin, Jamie, 2019)" Furthemore, she said that the family of the victim has a personal relationship which contains emotion and empathy towards the family, which made situtaion worse. She "still believes to this day that there were many officers of the law and courts who were more than willing to perjure themselves or to look the other way while evidence was fabricated and lies were told to insure that Matt was convicted and executed simply to save the son of a law enforcement officer. (Arpin, Jamie, 2019)"

Convincing the law that Matt had could have not commited such a crime was immposible. She was even worry to let her kids stay at home because they received many death threats messages towards her family.


To be continued..

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Death Penalty in ancient times

Capital punishment actually has a longer history than people imagine. Historical records show that people in the most ancient times even utilized methods of punishing criminals or wrongdoers.   “A life for a life” has been one of the most basic concepts for dealing with crime since the start of recorded history"(crime museum, 2021). Today, I am going to introduce some of the early forms of capital punishment and examples. Early forms of death penalty was made to punish the criminal slowly, so the person can feel the pain until they breath their last. Types of tourtures were different depending on what kind of crime they committed. For examples, law breakers were " put to death by stoning, crucifixion, being burned at the stake, and even slowly being crushed by elephants"(crime museum, 2021). Some other methods in the ancient times were, bites by snakes, devouring by animals, tearing apart by animals and trampling by horses. Later, the soceities started to realize that th...
2 comments
Read more

Death Penalty - 1st blog, 30 questions

  Here I listed up various questions to make you understand the topic and its issue better! 1. Have you ever deeply studied this topic in the past? 2. Do you agree/disagree to death penalty? 3.  (2) Why? 4. What are some opinions of those who support this system? 5. What are some opinions of those who are against this system? 6. Does your country have the system? 7. Is your country democratic? 8. What kind of method does your country use for the punishment? 9. Do you know the very beginning of capital punishment in the history? 10. What kind of methods did they use to execute in the ancient times? 11. Do you think such a punishment is humane or inhumane?  12. (11)Why? 13. What do you think is the opinion of the government who supports the punishment? 14. What do you think is the opinion of the government who does not support the punishment? 15. Do you think the death sentenced criminal gets to know the execution date? 16. Do the sentenced criminals get any special treatme...
1 comment
Read more

Why do some people support death penalty? - Part 1

Death penalty is internationally a controversial topic. Many countries have abolished the system while it still remains in some countries including Japan. Then, what are the supporters' opinions? Why do they support it if a lot of people consider it inhumane? There are mainly 3 opinions which the majority of the supporters have: 1. Execution is the only way criminals can compensate their victim(s). 2. It has deterrent effect on crime. 3. It is cheaper than life sentence. Today, I will go deeper into these opinions and explain if they are really true and rational.  1. "Executing is the only way criminals can compensate their victim(s)." By saying this, when a person kills someone, they should deserve the equal amount of punishment. One should not exist when they took someone's life. Therefore, as an compensation and as the criminal's own responsibility, they should be executed. Furthermore, the execution relieves the victim's family as well. Being aware that th...
1 comment
Read more