On April 27th, I had the pleasure of attending
another moving public event, An Evening
With Sister Helen Prejean: Abolitions And the Morality of Punishment, at
the DePaul Campus in Chicago.
Unfortunately, prior to the event, I had not had the
opportunity to read or view A Dead Man
Walking, but I had heard wonderful things about both the book and the
movie. I had, how
During my first semester of senior year, I was enrolled in “Civil
Liberties”, a class focused on Constitutional law and specifically past and
current Supreme Court cases involving questions over civil liberties. In addition to gaining exposure to
issues revolving around the death penalty during my month-long unit
concentrated on the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), I also
recently attended a Chicago-Kent College of Law forum on Glossip v. Gross, a current case regarding botched executions. For obvious reasons, this event sparked
my interest.
ever, previously studied the death penalty and our country’s
flawed judicial and penitentiary systems.
As soon as I entered the gothic lecture hall in the heart of
DePaul’s campus, I observed the solemn mood of the room. Lining the walls by
the entrance were hand-written letters from inmates at Stateville Correctional
Center, a maximum security prison right outside of Chicago. The
notes were heartbreaking. Stories
ranged from inmates who were told not to take plea deals and ended up with life
sentences to individuals being given life sentences due to “guilt by
association”. On the floor, the event planners laid down blue tape – which had
to be no more than four feet by ten feet – to mirror the size of a prison cell. I walked around slowly, taking it all
in.
When
Sister Helen Prejean was introduced, I expected a nun in full garb to
take the stage. Instead, a stout woman with short, dark hair and typical street
clothes stepped up to the podium and began speaking with a faint yet
impassioned tone. Sister
Helen Prejean explained exactly what I expected to hear. She shared a personal narrative about a
Louisiana death row inmate she had corresponded with before his execution, and
then she went into her spiel about how imperative it is that members of society
– and especially those who are well off – take up an active role in advocating
for the abolition of the death penalty and the reform of our penitentiary
system. There was one comment she
made, however, that did catch me off guard. She noted that it doesn’t take witnessing an execution to
recognize how our prison systems suck the life out of people. According to her,
one visit to a prison will make you realize how the current system ruins life
and does more harm than good. Prior to this event, I had decided that visiting
a prison did not appeal to me because I would be disturbed by being surrounded
with the perpetrators of serious crimes. Now, I think I would still feel wildly
uncomfortable at a prison, but for a different reason. I think it would be difficult for me to
witness my fellow humans being deprived of liberty because (in many cases) of a
flawed judicial system and an irrational dependency on our prison system.
For my independent research, I found an article titled
“Would Jesus Pull the Switch?” written by Sister Helen Prejean. In it, the Sister
depicts her first experience watching an execution and how horrifying it
was. She then goes on to
rationalize why, on a religious basis, she cannot be in support of the death
penalty. She explains, “Nor do I believe
that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill. The
paths of history are stained with the blood of those who have fallen victim to ‘God's
Avengers.’ Kings, popes, military generals, and heads of state have killed,
claiming God's authority and God's blessing. I do not believe in such a God.”
These few lines speak to me because I feel (minus the religious aspect) very
similarly. I do not understand how citizens can feel comfortable with a judicial
system – a system that us humans devised – can have the power to decide who
will have life and who will have death.
Note*: While I admit that my reflections have little to do with
countries relating to one another, it is worth mentioning that when it comes to
conversations about the death penalty, it is very relevant to cite how other
countries approach the death penalty. Most interesting is that America is not in great company when
it comes to the list of countries that administer the death penalty. The group includes – but is not limited
to – Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Somalia, all countries with
which the U.S. rarely likes to align itself when it comes to foreign or
domestic policy. The issue that
pro-death penalty advocates have with this argument, however, is that the
United States Constitution should not and has never taken into account the
standards of decency shared in outside nations. The Constitution strictly applies to the United States.
