‘Dead man walking’ sister speaks in Corpus Christi

Sister Helen Prejean was the featured speaker at the Coastal Bend Women Lawyers Association 2012 Woman of Distinction series held on April 18 at OMNI Bayfront. Sister Helen, CSJ is a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and her autobiographical account of her relationship with inmates on death row served as the basis for a feature film “Dead Man Walking.”

In a second book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” Sister Helen examines the recent history of death penalty decisions by the United States Supreme Court.

Sister Prejean now travels around the world giving talks about her ministry and advocacy for social justice and the abolishment of the death penalty. She shared her insight and views on the death penalty with the approximately 400 guests who attended the luncheon.

The death penalty, Sister Helen said, is far from a peripheral issue.  It is a practice that has developed a mindset that has made it easier to kill. She pointed out that the death penalty is disproportionately meted out to “people of color” and the poor. Rarely, she said, is the death penalty sought when the victim is a person of color.

She said some prosecutors are motivated adding to their resume the number of convictions for which the death penalty was imposed.

Sister Helen has not only accompanied the condemned to the death chambers, but has also been with the families of murder victims from whom she has learned much about mercy. She talked about forgiveness and its essence to the continuation of life in a meaningful way and said that “Dead Man Walking” was a tribute to Earl Delacroix who as a father of one of the murder victims worked to forgive the culprit for the murder of his son.  

Sister Helen said it was important to maintain dialogue in order to effect change but said the death penalty must be taken off the table as a punishment. The moral issues associated with the budget and the costs associated with the imposition of the death penalty must be part of the discussion.

Sister Helen said that the time involved from the imposition to the execution may be as long as 20 years and such time lag does not offer closure, that with the many appeals and stays, that it conjured all the tragedy over and over to the victims never allowing for true closure.

Catholics have adopted a consistent ethic when it comes to life, adopting the mantra that life must be protected from conception until natural death. The Catholic bishops in the United States have been calling for an end to the use of the death penalty for more than 25 years. In 2005, they invited Catholics to join them in an ongoing “Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty.”

“Ending the death penalty would be one important step away from a culture of death and toward building a culture of life,” is the official position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In his “Gospel of Life,” Blessed Pope John Paul II said, “The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform.”

Each year the Coastal Bend Women Lawyers Association honors a “woman of distinction” for her achievement in legal, political, business, international or non-profit work in her field of interest, association president Lucinda J. Garcia said. Sister Helen was chosen for her advocacy to seek social justice and for her advocacy to abolish the death penalty.

Among those honored at past events were Sissy Farenthold, political pioneer in Texas, attorney and former state representative; woman aviator Maxine Flournoy; Colleen Rowley, FBI Special Agent and Time Magazine Person of the Year; and civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.

“To listen to Sister Helen speak is to witness spirituality at its height of consciousness.  She stirs the soul, challenges the intellect and moves the heart to ponder the meaning of social justice, which includes the abolishment of the death penalty,” Garcia said.  “One is humbled and awed as she takes the listener on a journey with grace, humility and reverence for life and suffering as she embraces inmates on death row and families of murder victims.”