An Evening With Sister Helen Prejean: Abolitions And the Morality of Punishment

On April 27^th, 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.