Helen PrejeanCritiques

QBB-3

i think this was probably really important at the time. maybe it's even still important, because i doubt that much has changed around the general statistics (even if executions are less common - although i really don't know if they are or not). certainly the issues of racial and economic inequality in capital punishment (and in the legal system in general) remain the same.

i really appreciate that she hasn't chosen as examples men on death row who are actually innocent (although how specifically guilty i suppose is in question). because her point isn't that innocent people are killed by the government (although it's true, they are), or that rehabilitation is possible (although it is). her point is simply that if it's wrong for these men to have killed (and of course it is), then it's also wrong for the state or the government to do the same (and of course it is). she shows the humanity of both sides, of the victims' families as well as the murderers and their families. she is also really honest about how she felt and the assumptions and mistakes she made along the way.

i wish the telling was a bit more polished. it's disjointed at times and inconsistent with tenses, but shows potential for a really compelling narrative. that said, the more i write about it, the more i think this was well done, even though it didn't feel particularly so as i was reading it.

"The mandate [for the Catholic Church] to practice social justice is unsettling because taking on the struggles of the poor invariably means challenging the wealthy and those who serve their [the Church's] interests."

"She pointed out that to claim to be apolitical or neutral in the face of such injustices would be, in actuality, to uphold the status quo - a very political position to take, and on the side of the oppressors."½

I missed this back in the 90s when it was a blockbuster film, but read it recently to prepare to see the opera version. I'm glad I'm in the loop now. Sr. Helen's personal account of spiritually advising men on death row in Louisiana was eye-opening and inspirational. For those who espouse the pro-life movement, this book challenges the dignity and worth of every life. It also exposes flaws in the judicial and prison system where death row inmates are disproportionately poor and of color. What I liked best though was how personal Prejean made this and how willing she was to enter into the darkest moments of another's life and try to lead them to light, not conversion per se, but to understanding and to right relationships. I know she has faced criticism for her role in this issue, but she is a much-needed voice of personal experience and humanity. What is most admirable was how she "fell" into this calling and didn't turn away from it, ultimately changing her life's course and focus. Her strength, faith and love are amazing.

Read it so long ago but I remember its effect on me. Well and simply written, it's a powerful portrayal of several death row inmates by Sister Helen, who did not believe anyone was all bad. I don't either. With Helen, I don't believe a person should be remembered for the one worst thing he or she did in her or his life.

A warm and candid memoir, River of Fire discusses the first half of Sr. Helen Prejean's life, before she began her work as an anti-death penalty advocate, the work for which she is now best known. It focuses on how Prejean's ideas about faith and vocation gradually shifted, from an insular piety as a young woman to ones which engaged more fully with the complexity of poverty, racism, and other forms of injustice.½

Sister Helen presents her argument against the death penalty in this book by using two cases where it seems that the question of guilt or innocence is in question. It does seem that her statistics bear out a huge discrepancy between the halves and have nots getting a death sentence.

After seeing Dead Man Walking, it was a shock to hear Sr. Prejean speak at the Northwest Women’s Conference : she looks nothing like Susan Sarandon and she doesn’t sound like her either! But in this marvelous spiritual autobiography I could hear her voice clearly. It was a joy to read and more: I feel like a better person. Encounter with Christ does that.

Sr. Helen Prejean writes her life story: how she grew up, etc., but mostly her faith journey. It brought back memories of the pre-Vatican Two church, some good and some not so good. She does not spare herself as she recounts her early days, her entry into the novitiate of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, and her constant hunger to learn. This is an inspiring account of one woman's life of faith and the forces and people that shaped her and her faith in action.½

A moving and heartfelt account of Helen Prejean's journey into trying to abolish the death penalty, as well as her work for victims' rights. A tough issue, but she has conviction of character. I will not think about capital punishment the same way again.

It was really heavy material but well written. Also, I have lost some faith in the justice system, but better to be informed than ignorant I suppose.

A first person account of the psychological realities and the spiritual issues surrounding the officially sanctioned, deliberate taking of a life.

Sometimes in life, a book comes along that hits you square between the eyes, and has a real impact. You know that book, that you can’t stop thinking about once you’ve finished it? That book that you just didn’t want to put down? That book which made you immediately want to find out more about the author and the subject? For me, this was one of those books.

It is Sister Helen Prejean’s true account of her work as a spiritual adviser to death row inmates in Louisiana, in the 1980s. The book concentrates on her friendship with two very different death row inmates – Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie. Sister Helen is completely against the death penalty, and in this book, as well as talking about Sonnier and Willie, she lays out her reasons for her feelings, such as how the death penalty is an instituionally racist system, which is biased against black offenders AND black victims. It is also unfairly biased against the poor, who often simply cannot afford a decent defence counsel. She describes how the death penalty is completely ineffective as a deterrent against crime, and how the cost of carrying out executions takes money away from other areas, such as putting more police on the streets. However, this is a review, not a recap of this book, and I do not intend to recount every point Sister Helen makes – although I strongly urge everyone to read it, whatever their views on the death penalty.

I found Sister Helen’s relationships with Sonnier and Willie to be very moving. She acknowledged the heinous crimes they committed - and although the reader knows from the outset that these men are violent and dangerous criminals, in this book, they are also depicted as human beings. Their crimes are in no way excused, but I found it impossible not to feel sorrow when she describes their executions – at the futility of their deaths, which accomplished nothing and did not bring their victims back.

Sister Helen understands the need for some people to see these prisoners “get what they deserve,” and she does not condemn those who disagree wtih her stance. She also was instrumental in setting up support groups for victims of violent crime, and that work is also described in the book. She also fully agrees that the people who commit such vile acts should pay fully for their crimes, but using such an arbitrary and unfair system, is not helping anyone, including the victims. At no time does she seek to trivialise the pain of the victims, or in any way suggest that there are needs are any less important than the cause which she believes in – and she actually forms an interesting friendship with the parents of a murder victim, who are in support of the death penalty.

I cried a number of times while reading this book. Despite the heavy subject matter, Sister Helen’s writing is eloquent and honest – sometimes painfully so – and she is not afraid to acknowledge when she herself has made a mistake in judgement. I found it a very difficult book to put down, and have no doubt that I will read it again in future.

Needless to say, I strongly recommend this book.

This book was a exhausting read. I mean that in a good way. I have watched the movie many times, but the book surpassed it. I felt plunged into Sister Prejean's world as she works with the people who are involved in the death penalty. I learned alot about the unsung heroes that work with her. Those people moved me just as much as her overall story. Their passion, for no publicity, no financial reward, just to right a wrong made this story uber special.

I don’t really know how to describe my experience reading Dead Man Walking.

Draining? Sort of.

Stunning? Yes.

Informative? Certainly.

This book explains Sister Helen Prejean’s, a Catholic Nun, experiences with two different death row inmates in Louisiana. What begins as a simple pen pal exchange with one (Patrick Sonnier), turns into a life-altering experience for Prejean. Prejean, quite simply, learns not only about crime, but also the role that society has played in creating crime. She sees these prisoners not as violent offenders but as the people that they are. She grows to understand that the death penalty is not the best way to retaliate against their crimes, and that often justice in the name of religion isn’t justice at all.

I suppose Dead Man Walking managed to shock and horrify me. I read poverty and violence statistics that I had never seen before, and I was ashamed that a country like the United States could be that unjust. People need to know about this structural violence, and they need to take action. As Prejean proves, even small actions can create huge crescents of change.

While heavy on information, this book is a quick read. I suggest that anyone with interest in social activism, Christianity, or criminal justice take the time to check this out.

A worthwhile read about a nun (the author)'s friendship with two different death-row inmates, and about their last, short months leading up to their executions. It's a close-up look at something few Americans have an informed opinion on, though most DO have an opinion on it, nevertheless: capital punishment. Many support it, but few want to admit that the people GIVEN the death penalty are, indeed, people. We want to think that they're MONSTERS, that they DESERVE this, that they're evil and the only way to deal with them is to wipe them out. Obviously, Sister Helen's agenda is to convince her readers how primeval of an idea this is. I already agreed with her before I started the book, but she pounds it into you by the end: a pre-determined date with death is terrifying at worst, and, at best, mind-bogglingly ridiculous. Not to mention that its application in the courts is definitively "random and capricious". I didn't know this when I first researched the topic as a teenager, but I found out pretty quick. I started the project as an advocate for capital punishment, and wasn't even halfway through my research before I changed my mind. It doesn't take much--just the effort to educate oneself.

The two inmates Sister Helen befriends represent two opposite ends of the spectrum, in the way they approach their looming executions. Patrick Sonnier is scared shitless and does not want to go, while Robert Lee Willie lives incredibly detached and in the moment. He even winks at Sister Helen before they pull the mask over his face. She does a good job of telling their stories, of making them live on in the pages of this book. When they are killed, sympathetic readers WILL feel a twinge or more of sadness that they are gone. I mean, it's so bizarre. Death, in general, gives one that feeling: it's an unfathomable mystery, and here the government is, using it as a penalty for crime. I agree with the author: it's so *wrong*.

But I'm also glad Sister Helen pulls the victims' families' stories into this, and becomes *their* advocate by the end, too. She uniquely and successfully straddles a difficult divide: championing the cause of both victim and offender. I admire how she actively debates the issue of capital punishment with opponents, and manages to hear the other person out even while making herself heard. It's not just in one ear out the other, with her. She listens AND she walks the talk. In fact, she's so good at articulating what she believes and then acting, promptly and decisively, on it, that I wouldn't be surprised if she became a saint one day.

On the same token, the religious spin is the only part I wish I could take out, because I don't think it's central to these two inmates' life stories. However, it IS central to the author's identity, and so a few rabbit trails about the love of Jesus are somewhat inevitable. Hers is at least one brand of religion I wish were more common, as opposed to others.

All in all, a highly recommendable read.

An amazing book by an amazing lady. A moving and inspirational look at compassion and humanity. Additionally, so hideously depressing that my own problems seem like little piddly things in comparison; this book was very useful in becoming un-depressed.½

The book is a great read and has an amazing story behind it. I look forward to watching the video of the book as well.

In this book, SIster Prejean details 2 cases where innocent men were executed, and also talks a lot about the position of the Catholic Church. There is a polemic against Scalia, and also a lot on the human rights argument against the death penalty as torture, and the constitutional arguments against the death penalty as practices in the US. There is some repetition. The part that had me yelling back at her is when she uses the argument that the US can do away with the death penalty by using the alternative of Life w/out Parole as if that is somehow less inhumane, less torture, less cruel and unusual.

3136. Dead Man Walking / An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, by Helen Prejean, C.S.J. (read Dec 8, 1998) The author is appearing locally on Jan 12, so reading this was in preparation for hearing her. This is a searing and vivid book, and its author is a truly remarkable woman. I found the book memorable and thought-provoking, tho I need no book like this to convince me the deliberate, premeditated killing of a human being (except in defense of life) is wrong, no matter who does it.

This is a well written, well researched, and well thought out book about the many complicated issues encompassed in the death penalty in the U. S. criminal system. Written by a Catholic nun who became involved by being a spiritual advisor to death penalty prisoners, at least two of whom she walked to the electric chair on the day of their execution, this book is both heart wrenching and educational. Sister Prejean does an excellent job of being fair handed by offering the many sides of the issue, including those of the victims and the victims' families. She presents the criminals as they truly are and lists their many crimes, some of which they were never charged with but were nonetheless guilty of. Still I found it as sad as she did when they went to the electric chair. (Which, in my estimation, is the most heinous form of punishment that the U. S. Government has ever used.)

The facts of Prejean's first book have been disputed by victims and others. The truth isn't always obvious, but putting together Prejean's remarks in her book about Robert Lee Willie; the interviews that they both gave; Debbie Morris's account in Forgiving the Dead Man Walking: Only One Woman Can Tell the Entire Story, of what Prejean told her; the testimony of other witnesses, I'd have to say that she was lying when she described him as remorseful, and her credibility is compromised. Prejean is also willfully gullible when it comes to her advisees; she isn't so trusting with everyone. The first part of this book deals with the cases of two executed men whom Prejean claims were innocent. I don't know whether to believe her or not.

I also found this book considerably less moving since it does not include the soul-searching that made her first book so profound. Prejean is now apparently much more confident of her own righteousness, or at least less inclined to acknowledge other points of view.

The second part is arguments against the death penalty. Here Prejean is talking particularly, though not exclusively, to fellow Catholics, pointing out the changes in the Church's teachings. As an atheist, I will only say that I agree with Walter Berns in For Capital Punishment: the Christian model of redemption, presided over by an all-knowing god, is not a suitable model for a human legal system.

Prejean would argue that our lack of omniscience is a chief reason why we should not condemn anyone to death; life-without-parole is an adequate substitute. In my opinon, if we release a person we have good reason to believe is dangerous, we are an accessory to further violence. Not as guilt as if we executed an innocent person, but still guilty. If we didn't have the death penalty, I don't believe that we would have life without parole. I can remember the 1960s and 1970s: Karl Menninger's book The Crime of Punishment sums it up: "men of science" would "cure" criminals. Prejean's argument that we cannot predict future behavior is thus deeply ironic. Many of the people now arguing for life-without-parole used to argue for short sentences, employing the same basic arguments presented here. Hugo Bedau argued that surely ten years was enough for any crime, however heinous. If the death penalty is eliminated, I assume that many abolitionists will revert to their earlier, more sincere beliefs and campaign for quick parole. Having a death penalty is a very crude solution, but I don't know of any other.

In Dead Man Walking, Prejean quotes Susan Jacoby's brilliant book, Wild justice: The evolution of revenge. Jacoby argues that state justice exists partly to restrain excessive vengeance, like blood feuds, but "`... law exists not only to restrain retribution but to mete it out ... A society that is unable to convince individuals of its ability to exact atonement for injury ... runs a constant risk of having its members revert to wilder forms of [vigilante] justice.'" [brackets Prejean's] I think that our society lost its faith not so much in the ability as the will of the legal system to exact atonement.

I have discussed this at length with a friend who is a pre-sentencing investigator, who thus talks to everyone involved in a case and sees the final outcome. While our politicians may strut about talking about getting tough, existing laws may be unenforced and people get out the back door. In some states, parole agreements are unenforceable; probation is piled upon probation; parole is granted simply for time, not behavior. We are told that it is the public's fault: we refuse to pay for an adequate legal system. But since the "get tough" is considerably more public than the loopholes, I think this is doubtful. It's like maintaining any infrastructure: the temptation is always to shave here and shave there to finance more visible projects, knowing that it will take awhile for the neglect to become obvious.

Prejean also brings up a number of my least favorite arguments:
1. "The legal system is unfair to the poor and minorities". Eliminating capital punishment only solves this if unfairness only affects capital cases, or if you think a wrongful lengthy prison sentence is a trifle. I attended a debate on the death penalty: someone suggested that the solution is to provide a better defense. I thought this was a brilliant idea, benefitting all indigent defendants, not just the tiny fraction up on capital charges. The opponents of the death penalty said that it is impossible to improve the quality of the defense. There are at least three different systems for providing counsel to the poor - surely they can't all work the same. And the justice (or injustice) meted out to the wealthy shows that a defense can be much more effective. I also don't see how it would help the victims of crimes that the legal system more or less ignores. Do they want others to be treated as badly as they are, or do they want to be taken seriously?

2. "It is unfair that different jurisdictions hand down different penalties". No, we deliberately set up a system that allows these differences. Anyone who doesn't like it can certainly campaign to change the constitution, but that's the system now. It is also inappropriate to judge individual states by nationwide statistics. Further, if we require uniformity, more states have the death penalty than don't - a scale can be balanced from both sides.

3. "If something is wrong for an individual, it is wrong for the government". In that case, the government has no right to imprison people, either, let alone collect taxes, enforce public health laws, etc.

Prejean's statistics leave a lot to be desired. They are incomplete or inappropriately applied, e.g., taking statistics from "The Death Belt" and applying them to the entire country. Prejean also uses an "any weapon that comes to hand" approach that means that she talks out of both sides of her mouth: the death penalty is unconstitutional in Texas because they use it too much, and unconstitutional because most of the states only rarely apply it. I'm rather incredulous that Prejean says that human beings can't make distinctions: I think I can see the difference between killing someone because one's car skidded on ice and being a serial killer.

I had to read this for a class I'm taking and I'm shocked that I hadn't picked it up before now. Prejean gives such compelling arguments against the death penalty, it's hard to believe that anyone could not agree with her. What's wonderful about this book is that she presents her facts with no religious bent, yet she shows her spirituality in the relationships she has with others. It makes for a very compelling read.½

This book gave me insight into how our legal system works when it comes to death penalty cases. I highly recommend it, no matter what side of the fence you fall on in this debate.

I've also heard Sister Helen speak in person -- she's amazing. If you ever hear that she's in the area, go listen to her! Who would guess that a nun would be so darn funny?

Highly worth reading.

Signed by the author.