''Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead'' is an independent documentary film about retributivist

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

advocate Robert Blecker and his relationship with Daryl Holton, a

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ...

inmate who murdered his own four children, and who was executed by the state of Tennessee in September 2007. The film was directed by Ted Schillinger and produced by Bruce David Klein. The film was completed in November 2007 and made its world premiere on April 25, 2008, at the

USA Film Festival The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, as an official selection of the festival. The film was also an official selection of the 2008

Rhode Island Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, th ...

and the 2008

Cork Film Festival The Cork International Film Festival, also known as the Cork Film Festival (), is a film festival held annually in Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the ...

. It won a Gold Kahuna Award at the 2009 Honolulu International Film Festival. ''Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead'' was released theatrically on February 27, 2009. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said the film was "compelling" and ''Film Journal International'' called it "captivating." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' described it as a fascinating look at "the vast amount of wiggle room between being for the death penalty and being against it."''Washington Post'' review
/ref> The film made its television premiere on April 19, 2009, on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

. It was released on DVD in 2010.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1305592
Variety article referring to production of filmRadio interview with Robert Blecker about the filmFLYP multimedia article on the film''Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead'' on Rotten Tomatoes
2008 films Documentary films about capital punishment in the United States 2000s English-language films American independent films American documentary films American prison films 2000s American films