James Barnes sits in his orange colored prison jumpsuit and talks about how he's always been in trouble. As a youngster, he killed his family's cats, set fires and committed other crimes. Now, Barnes is sitting on Florida's death row awaiting execution for killing at least three women, including his wife, whom he strangled and stuffed in a closet.
Barnes is one of five inmates featured in "Death Row," a film series directed by legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog. The series is being shown at the Berlin International Film Festival this week.
Barnes accepts full responsibility for his crimes and is repentant. In his conversation with the German film director, the inmate does not appear to be a monster at all. And that's just what Herzog wanted to show.
The purpose of the series is to humanize the murderers, not to excuse their crimes, Herzog, 69, said in a statement released Monday. "The crimes of the persons in the films are monstrous, but the perpetrators are not monsters."
Source: Spiegel Online, Feb. 14, 2012
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