Příběh na smrt a na život

Crime and punishment in a reportage edition. The story of an 18-year-old girl sentenced to life imprisonment for her involvement in a brutal murder. The victim, whom she and her friends had targeted, was only a few years older. We follow the reconstruction of the crime, the investigation, and the media frenzy, while reflecting on the limits of justice and the possibility of forgiveness.
As always, Wojciech Tochman arrives after the emotions have subsided and the tabloid journalists have lost interest. He asks difficult, perhaps even provocative questions. Is the murderer still so dangerous that she must remain behind bars? Why did the media focus primarily on the girl they called "the beast," even though, unlike the two young men, she did not strike a single blow? What function does life imprisonment serve in society?
Horrific crimes and violence have been with us since time immemorial, but punishments have changed. They reflect different ways of dealing with the worst of all crimes against humanity: the killing of another human being. In the spirit of the ancient proverb "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," we can try to deter other murderers. Gradually, we began to think of punishment as a tool to change and re-educate individuals. Unless we decide that someone is beyond redemption. The death penalty has been replaced by life imprisonment, but it is still based on the belief that the court is capable of determining where the fragile line between hope for rehabilitation and a decision of definitive rejection lies.

Tochman does not want to justify murder. However, he asks an uncomfortable question: what does the trial say about our society? We see tabloid interest in the details of the crime, but little effort to find the real causes of the behavior of children who have become murderers. The court allows itself to be influenced by prejudice and one person's desire for revenge. When will we agree that the murderer has been punished enough? If she regrets her actions and has admitted her guilt, will we give her the chance to learn to live outside the prison where she has spent twenty-five years?