SPOILERS ALERT - in your opinion...

... did she really NOT deserve the death penalty even if she was guilty, and was Sharon Stone's character in this movie in an odd way somewhat sympathetic? ALSO... Maybe I understood it wrong but SPOILERS - last time I watched it, I actually thought that lawyer has succeeded in getting her off the death penalty and released, and then that Annie Lennox song was playing. Or maybe it was metaphorical and I interpreted it wrong, maybe she was dying and those were her imagined visions?

And is it just or even partially because she was a woman, and with some tragic backstory too (yep, sadly, although understandably too, the movie went there as well) or maybe she really did serve some time and repented and death penalty was unnecessary (plus, was the killing accidental?) that we and the movie were rooting for her to get out alive, even if she was guilty, or was there MORE to it?

And why WAS she given the death penalty ANYWAYS as opposed to life imprisonment even if it WAS murder or even a few years or so? Even though, and we even saw it in this film, the members of the system etc actually were NOT happy to carry out such sentence.