Sister Helen Prejean, the Death Penalty, and the DNCC

Sister Helen Prejean, the Death Penalty, and the DNCC

By: Chloe Breyer
Wednesday August 20, 2008

Advance applause goes to the Democratic National Convention Committee for its decision to include Sister Helen Prejean author of Dead Man Walking in the historic interfaith service opening the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver on August 24th.

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Like secular anti-death penalty activists, Sister Helen's rationales for ending the death penalty include its racial and economic bias and the strong likelhood of wrongful executions. Another powerful argument grounded in Sister Helen's Roman Catholic faith is the "collateral" damage done by the death penalty on the wardens and corrections officials who are directly responsible for overseeing executions. What are the spiritual costs to men and women like Texas Warden, Jim Willett who from 1998-2001 oversaw 89 executions?

"There are times," Willet said in an award-winning NPR radio show Witness to an Execution, "when I'm standing there, watching those fluids flow and wonder whether what we are doing here is right. It is something I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life." The same program chronicled Fred Allen a member of the tie-down team in Texas' Wall Unit who after 120 executions had a mental breakdown and retired from his work.

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