Sister Helen Prejean, author of the highly acclaimed non-fiction book Dead Man Walking, presented her views on capital punishment at an assembly held in the Mandeville (LA) High School commons on January 30, 1997. The assembly was hosted by the MHS Amnesty International students, who each year try to bring to the student body a human rights topic that can be discussed in their classes. Over 500 students attended along with some parents.
The fifty-five year old sister from Saint Joseph's began her work on death row in 1983 when she served as a pen pal to death row inmate Patrick Sonnier. Eventually, she became closer to Sonnier and served as his spiritual guide during his death.
"I had no idea what I was getting into," Prejean said during the assembly. Since that time, she has witnessed eleven executions.
Prejean attended the death row executions "to pray for the man who would be killed, as well as for the victims and the executioner." Her presence made her a target of verbal abuse by capital punishment advocates protesting outside the prison gates.
Prejean contends that the effect of capital punishment on the men who administer it is as destructive as it is on the sentenced criminal. She dedicates many pages of her book to interviews with death row guards and administrators who question the moral and punitive justice of "pulling the switch."
Louisiana itself has had twenty-two executions since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court. Some victims' families launched a letter writing campaign to the New Orleans Archdiocese to protest Prejean's public stance against the death penalty. Many of the death penalty advocates in her native Louisiana are in fact Catholic.
The year after Prejean's book came out, Susan Sarandon met her while filming The Client in New Orleans. Sarandon purchased the rights to the book and Tim Robbins, her longtime partner, agreed to write and direct the movie.
Prejean was initially reluctant to allow her book to be made into a film but Robbins persuaded her. "Tim had the right idea from the beginning," said Prejean.
Robbins said that the screenplay for Dead Man Walking was a collaborative effort. "Helen is someone whom I respect for what she has chosen to do, as well as her opinions," he said in a 1994 interview. "She had some great ideas for the film and I had no reason to hide anything from her when I was writing. I showed her my drafts, and her contributions were significant."
Although Prejean is against the death penalty, she made the point that she understood the motivations behind the families of those killed by death row inmates. "My God," she said. "How could these people do these horrible, horrible things? What will their families think?"
Prejean stressed the idea that one must try to comprehend both sides of the issue before making a judgment about whether someone should live or die.
By Brian Danahy, staff writer, "The MHS Crest."
Adapted and reprinted with permission from the Mandeville High School newspaper, "The MHS Crest," Vol. XXII, No. 4: February 26, 1997.
