Into the Abyss

Today I was in a mood for a documentary, and what a great one! Nothing impressive or original but so simple, interesting and well made. Tells the story of Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, two men that are involved in the murder of 3 people just because they wanted to steal a car. Perry was in death row and Burkett is serving a life sentence. This was made 8 days before Michael Perry was executed. He was on the death row convicted for the murder of Sandra Stotler and he was a suspect for the killing of Sandra's son and a friend of his son. Burkett was convicted to life sentence for being an accomplice of the murders. Mostly consists of interviews from the two convicts, the family of the victims, a reverend who stays with the criminals while they are being executed, a executioner, the father of Burkett's (who is also in jail) and Burkett's wife. All of them talk about the way they feel about death penalty and why they think this two young men commited this crime for such a stupid material thing as a car. It also shows a police video footage where the murder took place. I guess the main point of this documentary is trying to understand why people kill and why the state kills. This is passed in Texas where 40% of all US executions are made. This is a very complicated subject and this thought-provoking documentary definitely will make you think about it. It's worth watching, no matter what you think about death penalty.