On Oct. 28, Moreau First-Year Seminar students were invited to hear a lecture by Sister Helen Prejean, a nun of the Congregation of St. Joseph and a anti-death penalty advocate, in order to fulfillthe course’s co-curricular experience requirement.
Prejean is from Louisiana and has written several books, including “Dead Man Walking,” which has been adapted into a movie, a play and an opera. Each student who attended the lecture received a copy of Prejean’s new, unreleased book, called Dead Man Walking: Graphic Edition.
In the 1980s, Prejean was serving the poor in Louisiana when she was asked to write a letter to an inmate on death row, Patrick Sonnier. Sonnier was a convicted murderer of a young couple and a rapist. Prejean worked with a spiritual advisor and helped him to repent for his sins. She spent Sonnier’s final hours with him.
Sharing how this shaped her view of the death penalty, she said, “The victim’s families have been told by the prosecution anybody who thinks the execution of that man is your enemy … And justice means only one thing. He killed, so we’re going to kill him, and we’re going to let you sit on the front row and watch. And that’s what we’re going to call justice. We don’t think about it.”
She continued, asking, “Where else in the criminal justice system do you ever imitate the crime of somebody to determine a punishment?”
Prejean believes justice is an integral part of the gospel. Despite initially being unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, her work in Louisiana helped grow her understanding of death row.
Further reflecting upon her experience visiting Sonnier on Death Row, Prejean said, “I was scared. I’d never been with a murderer before. I thought his face was going to look different … And I heard the guards bring him in, and I was going to visit him, and I was so glad they had him locked on one side, and I was protected. And I looked into his face, and I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s a human being.'”
Despite having done such an unspeakable action, Prejean shared she found that there is more to all people than their worst action.
Prejean described the majority of those on death row tend to come from difficult backgrounds. In Sonnier’s case, his parents were separated and he had raised himself.
She described another case she worked on; Robert Lee Willie, a convicted serial killer, who had what she labeled “an outlaw mentality.” She said for those who have this outlaw mentality, “even death is not going to break (them).”
Willie told Prejean that he wanted his last words to be against the parents of one of his victims. To this, Prejean said, “Your last words on earth, you want them to be words of hate.” She shared that eventually, he told her, “I hope my death gives them some peace,” and Prejean said she “latched on to that with him (and) said, Robert, those would be good words to say to them. Maybe your death can give them peace.”
Forgiveness, Prejean says, is the heart of her books and the work she has done throughout her life.
The father of the boy murdered by Sonnier was a devout Christian, who, when identifying his son’s body, said the Our Father.
Prejean recalled, “When he came to the words in the Our Father, ‘and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,’ he said, ‘Sister, I’ve said the words, but I didn’t feel anything for them. I just wanted to take them and strangle the life out of them.’ And he was consumed with this anger and this hatred.” To forgive, he decided not to let the torment and anger that had killed his son destroy him.
She explainrd that in Louisiana, any opposition to the death penalty was seen as weak, and those who forgave were viewed as condoning what the criminals had done.
This forgiveness, not hatred, is how Prejean believes society can move forward.
She explained the father of the boy who Sonnier murdered was the only one in their town to show Sonnier kindness. Sonnier’s mother was tormented, yet the father of the boy came to her and said, “I know you’re going through a tough time in this town … He gave her a basket of fruit. And he said, Here’s my number. If you need me, you call me. We’re both parents. And as parents, we never really know what our kids might do. I don’t hold you responsible for what happened.”
This lack of forgiveness in the community, she explained, continues to this day, saying, “We live in a culture where you solve these social problems with violence, so they kill, so we’re gonna kill them.”
Prejean noted just recently the state of Indiana killed a prisoner on death row. In Louisiana, she said, the Archbishop was pro-death penalty, which led to a series of Louisiana Bishops remaining silent about the issue.
One famous death penalty case Prejean recounts in her book is of Joseph O’Dell, who was believed to have been innocent. Prejean said many in Europe, specifically in Italy, began to speak out against the execution of O’Dell, so much so that it came to the attention of Pope John Paul II. Prejean corresponded with the Pontiff.
In her letter to the Pope, she recounts saying, “ You talk about the inviolable dignity of human life: All human life. We need you to help our church that it’s not that Jesus believes in dignity, not just the innocent people but the guilty as well. Can you help our church come to a position to uphold the inalienable right to life, in all life, even the guilty?”
Prejean explained people change over time. “It’s like consciousness and conscience grow in us as a people. It’s a way we abolish slavery in this country. It’s a way we finally came to the consciousness that women should be able to vote. We grow in our social consciousness and the church as a community grows,” she said.
This, she said, led in 1999 to the Pope declaring the death penalty something all Catholics in the Church must reject. Similarly, in 2018, Prejean noted Pope Francis said, “ No matter how grievous the crime, we cannot turn over to the government that absolute power over life to take human life.”
To end, she called on students to do work humanely to help end the death penalty in the United States.