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“It’s time”.
These are the last words that the condemned hear in the death chamber at Huntsville. They are also the signal for the first of three injections. Frances Newton was found guilty of shooting dead her husband and two children for the life insurance money and was sentenced to death for her crime. Now, 18 years later, that sentence is to be carried out. This film does not focus on the course of a judicial murder; it cannot clarify the guilt, or indeed the innocence that Frances still maintains. What it does is present the truly appalling part of all this: its banality. Every two weeks on average the state execution team convenes here. Here we have the violent and simultaneously sterile apparatus of the “most humane” of all forms of execution. It will be the moment of truth for Frances. The witnesses arrive to take their places in the viewing room. The final decisions to refuse a stay of execution are received from the last court of appeal. Mrs. Newton waived her right to her last meal, and opted not to say any “last words”. To her family in the witness room however she soundlessly mouthed the words: “I love you”.

Germany - 2006 - 48 mn - Betacam Digital - Colour

Director Thomas Giefer, Rena Giefer Journalist Konrad Ege Camera Thomas Giefer Sound Rena Giefer Editing Frenzie Neumann Music Michael Kadelbach

Production WestDeutscher Rundfunk, PG Gesellschaft und Dokumentation, Vierscheibenhaus R. 652 Appellhofplatz 1, 50600 Köln, Allemagne Tél : +49 22 1220 2765 Fax : +49 22 1220 8484 E-mail : redaktion@wdr.de

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