***SPOILERS*** Having spent the last six years on death row at the Colorado State Penitentiary time was just about running out for convicted murderer/kidnapper John Burke, Scott Bakula. As he awaits his fate, death by lethal injection, in the prisons death chamber. With protest outside the prison for and against Burke being executed by the state the parents Jack & Connie Murphy, Richard Thomas & Amy Mdigan, of Burke's 16 year-old victim Jennifier "Jenny" Murphy, Kimberley Warnot, have become deeply divided in their daughters murderer fate.
Jack seeing home videos of Jenny laughing and playing with her friends and family suddenly feels that he has to have a last talk with Burke. Just to put his mind at ease in why he murdered his, and Connies, only child. That starts him thinking that maybe there's more to Burke's mental state then was revealed at his trial. Connie the founder and president of the Denver chapter of "Parents for Justice" who's members for the most part are parents like her and Jack who's children were victims of crimes is disturbed over her husbands sudden change of mind in his feelings for his daughters murder. That almost causes the two grieving parents to split up just when closure, the execution of John Burke, to Jenny's murder was about to happen.
Going against his, and Connies, better judgment Jack is allowed to have a last talk with John Burke in the prisons death row and is startled to find out that Burke despite his unforgivable and vicious life is in fact not asking for himself to be speared the death penalty not caring at all if he lives or dies, which in a way is an improvement for him. Burke instead cares for his daughter 12 year-old Lisa, Robin Phipps. Who with her guardian Burke's mom Lnyette,Mary Black, suffering from acute heart disease and not long for this world would be left all alone in this cruel cold world after he's gone.
It's hard to sit through "In the Name of the People" not that it's in any way a bad film but in the subject matter that it exposes its audience to. Jack & Connie who's daughter Jenny was taken away from them by a brutal and ruthless killer are now faced with the heart wrenching decision to adopt his soon to be orphaned daughter Lisa. That in order to keep her from being left alone in the world with no one to look after or care for her. That in a way replacing, with the Murphy's not able to have any more children, Jenny as their own!
You like the Murphys with Connie later changing her mind about her husbands decision, to have a last talk with their daughter murderer, start to see John Burke in a much more sympathetic light. Not that what he did was in any way explained away in some bleeding heart liberal-like psycho-babble by him having a brutal and loveless childhood. But that he came to realize what a lowlife he was and how he in the end not only hurt his many victims, like Jenny Murphy, in the crimes that he committed but the few people who he cared for and loved like his Mom Lyeytte and 12 year-old daughter Lisa.
It takes a lot of soul searching and even more courage for the Murphys, especially Connie, to finally come to the almost impossible decision to forgive Burke for what he did. Who we're shown in a chilling flashback of how he cold-blooded and ruthlessly murdered a terrified and pleading for her life Jenny Murphy.
Very few people would do, and who can blame them, what the Murphys did at the end of the movie. But it showed that they in the end came to realize that their daughters killers execution would not bring the closure that they always sought. That by showing the Christ-like kindness loving and understanding, "Do unto others as you would want others to do unto you", that the Murphy's's showed for his daughter Lisa would in the end more then anything else help heal the wounds that they suffered at the hands of her very repetitive father.
Jack seeing home videos of Jenny laughing and playing with her friends and family suddenly feels that he has to have a last talk with Burke. Just to put his mind at ease in why he murdered his, and Connies, only child. That starts him thinking that maybe there's more to Burke's mental state then was revealed at his trial. Connie the founder and president of the Denver chapter of "Parents for Justice" who's members for the most part are parents like her and Jack who's children were victims of crimes is disturbed over her husbands sudden change of mind in his feelings for his daughters murder. That almost causes the two grieving parents to split up just when closure, the execution of John Burke, to Jenny's murder was about to happen.
Going against his, and Connies, better judgment Jack is allowed to have a last talk with John Burke in the prisons death row and is startled to find out that Burke despite his unforgivable and vicious life is in fact not asking for himself to be speared the death penalty not caring at all if he lives or dies, which in a way is an improvement for him. Burke instead cares for his daughter 12 year-old Lisa, Robin Phipps. Who with her guardian Burke's mom Lnyette,Mary Black, suffering from acute heart disease and not long for this world would be left all alone in this cruel cold world after he's gone.
It's hard to sit through "In the Name of the People" not that it's in any way a bad film but in the subject matter that it exposes its audience to. Jack & Connie who's daughter Jenny was taken away from them by a brutal and ruthless killer are now faced with the heart wrenching decision to adopt his soon to be orphaned daughter Lisa. That in order to keep her from being left alone in the world with no one to look after or care for her. That in a way replacing, with the Murphy's not able to have any more children, Jenny as their own!
You like the Murphys with Connie later changing her mind about her husbands decision, to have a last talk with their daughter murderer, start to see John Burke in a much more sympathetic light. Not that what he did was in any way explained away in some bleeding heart liberal-like psycho-babble by him having a brutal and loveless childhood. But that he came to realize what a lowlife he was and how he in the end not only hurt his many victims, like Jenny Murphy, in the crimes that he committed but the few people who he cared for and loved like his Mom Lyeytte and 12 year-old daughter Lisa.
It takes a lot of soul searching and even more courage for the Murphys, especially Connie, to finally come to the almost impossible decision to forgive Burke for what he did. Who we're shown in a chilling flashback of how he cold-blooded and ruthlessly murdered a terrified and pleading for her life Jenny Murphy.
Very few people would do, and who can blame them, what the Murphys did at the end of the movie. But it showed that they in the end came to realize that their daughters killers execution would not bring the closure that they always sought. That by showing the Christ-like kindness loving and understanding, "Do unto others as you would want others to do unto you", that the Murphy's's showed for his daughter Lisa would in the end more then anything else help heal the wounds that they suffered at the hands of her very repetitive father.