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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"