The Catholic nun who changed the US debate on the death penalty forever

[rug]

Sister Helen Prejean, campaigner for death row prisoners as well as families of murder victims, on 4 February 2013. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking shook American attitudes on capital punishment. And 20 years on, it still inspires

Amy Goodman
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 June 2013 12.17 EDT

Thirty years ago, a Catholic nun working in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans was asked if she would be a penpal to a death row prisoner. Sister Helen Prejean agreed, forever changing her life, as well as the debate on capital punishment in the US.

Her experiences inspired her first book, "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States," which has just been republished on its 20th anniversary. She was a penpal with Patrick Sonnier, a convicted murderer on death row in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. In her distinctive southern accent, she told me of her first visit to Sonnier:

"It was scary as all get-out. I had never been in a prison before … I was scared to meet him personally. When I saw his face, it was so human, it blew me away. I got a realization then, no matter what he had done … he is worth more than the worst thing he ever did. And the journey began from there."

Sister Helen became Sonnier's spiritual adviser, conversing with him as his execution approached. She spent his final hours with him, and witnessed his execution on 5 April 1984. She also was a spiritual adviser to another Angola death row prisoner Robert Lee Willie, who was executed the same year. The book was made into a film, directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean and Sean Penn as the character Matthew Poncelet, an amalgam of Sonnier and Williams. Sarandon won the Oscar for best actress, and the film's success further intensified the national debate on the death penalty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/20/dead-man-walking-capital-punishment

Here's a key scene from the movie:

[TommyCelt]

1. Sr. Prejean's book...

...reversed by opinion on the death penalty, eventually leading me to embrace the "seamless garment"

[IrishAyes]

2. And there are misogynists in this world

who'd declare her unfit to serve. Blows my mind.