MovieChat Forums > The Green Mile (1999) Discussion > Question About Del's Execution

Question About Del's Execution

posted 12 years ago by CalvinValjean
29 replies | jump to latest

What I never understood is once they saw what was happening to Del and crowd starting getting scared, why didn't Paul and the other guards just shoot Del in the head and put him out of his misery? I don't think the warden or anyone in the crowd would have minded given how disturbed they were by that point. Wouldn't that have made more sense than just continuing to carry out the execution?

It actually bothers me even more in the book, where the whole scene is dragged out a bit longer. Paul narrates how horrified he is by what he sees is happening to Del, but he has no choice other than to let it continue or turn off the power while Del is still alive, which would be worse. The entire time I kept thinking "No, you have a third option. Just pull out your gun, shoot him in the head, and end it now."

[–] kbarada 12 years ago

I agree with you. I guess they were following the Judge's sentencing words to a "T" about the part that "you will have electricity passed through your body till dead".

I think if this really happened, Del would have been unconscious if not dead in the first few seconds.

[–] corywiththet 12 years ago

This scene made it even easier for me to have a big smile when Percy wound up getting his comeuppance at the end. What a bastard.

[–] spookyrat1 12 years ago

" I guess they were following the Judge's sentencing words to a "T" about the part that "you will have electricity passed through your body till dead"."

Yes they were very prescriptive about their preparations and the processes they had established.

I couldn't see Paul or his crew pulling out their guns and shooting Dell in a million years. He wouldn't regard that as being in his brief and probably not think it was lawful, as the court hadn't ordered it.

[–] merttemizsoy 11 years ago

I've noticed that Del's execution scene is almost the same with the first electric chair execution. His name was William Kemmler, and he was the first person executed using an electric chair.

[–] EsmagaSapos 11 years ago

OP, I don't agree... and I'm going to tell you why:

First of all: The United States law don't allow it ;
Second: Paul couldn't kill Del for many reasons, one of them is because he is not a murderer ;
Third: If Paul kills Del he would have to answer for is dead and Percy even worse.

[–] Riddles_At_U 11 years ago

Would probably help if you actually replied to the OP..

[–] foebane72 11 years ago

I've noticed that Del's execution scene is almost the same with the first electric chair execution. His name was William Kemmler, and he was the first person executed using an electric chair.

How do you know this, from a journalist's point of view?

Face it, journalists are liars AND exaggerators.

[–] OeditpusRex 11 years ago

I don't suppose it would occur to you to research William Kemmler's execution before casting baseless aspersions on others, would it?

[–] merttemizsoy 10 years ago

If many papers, journalists, reporters, etc. are all liars; this may be a lie.

Check the Wikipedia page about William Kemmler:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kemmler

The last sentence of it:

"Westinghouse later commented: 'They would have done better using an axe.' "

I also advise to read about the AC-DC opposition between Westinghouse and Edison which is also called "War of Currents". Because electric chair execution is related to this issue.

[–] JungleHyena 11 years ago

I might recall it incorreclty here....

But these guards did not carry guns,... only batons.

(update)

Ha just took a quick peek at the movie.... they did carry pistols.
So yeah then is the OP question valid.

[–] eddiewinehosen 11 years ago

No they carry guns. Percy shoots Wild Bill with his or did you think he flung his baton at him 6 times?

[–] MissTexasMcCoy 11 years ago

The sense I got from having read the book and seeing the film, is that even though it was an absolutely horrible thing for Percy to do by not wetting the sponge, Del literally frying/burning to death in the chair is somewhat of a retribution/redemption for the crime he'd committed, which the film does not mention at all. The book says Del had raped and murdered a young woman, then tried to set her body on fire behind the building she lived in. The building caught on fire and killed six more innocent people, two of which were small children. SK describes this much better in the book as being one of the major reasons Percy hated Del so much. Hence Del dying the way he did was a sort of an atonement for the crime he'd committed... a typical SK element of irony which he seems to like to write and does so very well.

Just my opinion.

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"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way"

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[–] Drooch (5333) 3 years ago

That’s interesting. Makes Del less of a cartoon loveable retard and Percy less of a cartoon sadist.

I wonder if these nuances would have improved the characterisations and maybe earned the film more Awards attention at the time. I like the film but parts of it feel too sugar-coated and dumbed down.

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 11 years ago

I suspect it was just how the law was when it came to executions. If they had shot him while he was supposed to have been killed by electricity it could be considered a murder.

I guess it is the same type of logic as people on death row being put on suicide watch and making sure they are swabbed before lethal injection so they don't get an infection from the shot.

Come visit my theblackrosecastle.com

[–] mcfaddensflats 11 years ago

A previous poster is right to compare what Del suffers to what happened to the first prisoner executed in the electric chair - William Kemmler in 1890. In another echo of Del, reports say Kemmler was very much a changed man by the time his execution finally came around. In view of the atrocious nature of Kemmler's death, it's surprising that the method wasn't immediately abandoned after that horrific display. Electricity was being tried as a more humane/up to date way of carrying out capital punishment than hanging.

[–] snagletooth 10 years ago

Perhaps. It would make sense to have an at-hand backup, a coup de grace, if things should go they way they did here, but that would require intelligent legislators and judges. That's asking way too much.

[–] tylerdanielblack 11 years ago

My question is, would not wetting the sponge really drag the spectacle out in such gratuitous and contrived fashion and, given Percy's nature, would there really be no system of checking that Percy was following procedures accurately and properly?

Best film ever made? The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

[–] raecheer 10 years ago

On checking Percy's work - none of them probably thought that he could be that cruel as to burn someone to death.

And checking someone on the fly would be difficult, it would take the 'checker' the same amount of time to check him as it did for Tom Hanks character to realize that the sponge was dry. - Because Percy did make a motion of putting the sponge in the bucket, he just didn't dip it in the actual water.

[–] tylerdanielblack 11 years ago

> why didn't Paul and the other guards just shoot Del in the head

Is this a serious question?

Best film ever made? The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

[–] brand_name 11 years ago

texasmccoy nailed it in his/her post

IT is a great book

[–] WendingWanderer 10 years ago

They have guns - yes.

But they don't use them in their jobs. They're not accustomed to using their guns at all. And the botched electrocution shocks and horrifies them. I doubt it even occurred to them that they had guns at their sides that they could use to end it quickly.