Sister Helen Prejean's passion to end the death penalty is a challenge to others
(Gallery by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
By on May 10, 2013
For two decades, Sister Helen Prejean has traveled around the country and the world, speaking out against capital punishment. She tells audiences about being a spiritual adviser to inmates on death row and talks about what it means to accompany a man to his death. She tells of meeting the families of the doomed men and the families of their victims. She talks about how the court system works, and how it doesn’t. She speaks of forgiveness.
She calls her passion to end the death penalty “a journey that’s still happening.”
During an interview many years ago, she took me back to the beginning of that journey, when her audiences were considerably smaller than they are now. “I had my smallest crowd right here in New Orleans, at the St. Christopher Home,” she said. “Three people showed up, and two of them nodded off.”
That was before her book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” was published in 1993, and before Susan Sarandon won an Oscar portraying her in the movie.
Since then, Sister Helen has given hundreds and hundreds of talks and filled countless auditoriums. She wrote a second book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” which came out in 2004. In it, she takes readers with her as she witnesses the executions of two men she believes were innocent, and she shows them evidence the juries never saw.
The first time I heard Sister Helen speak was at Sacred Heart Academy in 1995, and she held the crowd of high school girls spellbound with her tales of death and pain and forgiveness. I’ve heard her several times since then. She always makes me think, and makes me question what I think I know. The stories she tells are always different, but her message is the same: Before you decide how you feel about the death penalty, learn everything you can about it.
“I believe a lot of the people who say they support the death penalty have never reflected on it,” she said Tuesday when we sat down to talk.
A national award for social justice
Sister Helen was in New Orleans to receive the Robert M. Holstein Faith That Does Justice Award from the Ignatian Solidarity Network, a national social justice advocacy organization. We shared a quiet corner at Cafe Reconcile before the reception in her honor began.
The award is given each year to a person “who has demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice grounded in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.” Sister Helen is the first woman to receive the award and the first non-Jesuit.
When I asked her what she has learned in the 20 years since “Dead Man Walking” was published, she said, “I’ve learned I can be on the road a lot. I never give a ‘canned’ talk, so it’s always fresh for me. I never get tired of it.”
She’s preparing for a busy summer because Random House is going to reissue a 20th anniversary edition of her moving best-seller, which will mean a book tour, television and newspaper interviews, and lots of speaking engagements. She’s looking forward to all of it.
“The book does good, honest work, and this is going to give it new life, get it out there all over again,” she said.
Her story has also spread through the Dead Man Walking Opera, which premiered in 2000, and through the Dead Man Walking School Theater Project, which has brought the story into schools across the country since 2003.
Tim Robbins, who wrote, produced and directed the film adaptation of the book, also wrote a stage play with the idea of bringing it to high school and college theater arts and academic classes. He has said he wants young people to learn about capital punishment and understand all its ramifications.
“He doesn’t get a penny for it,” Sister Helen said. “It’s in 230 high schools and universities, and he feels good about doing it.”
Making her way in the world
Sister Helen still marvels at the path her life has taken. She grew up in Baton Rouge in the 1950s, a Catholic schoolgirl, the daughter of a lawyer, a child of privilege. She became a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille and a Catholic school teacher. When she heard that nuns should be involved with social justice, she didn’t think that meant her.
“But I woke up in 1980,” she said. “The people of St. Thomas educated me.”
That was the year she started teaching GED classes at Hope House in the St. Thomas public housing development. She learned a little bit about what it was like to grow up poor and black in New Orleans, and she decided to dedicate her life to helping the poor.
In 1981, she began corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair at Angola. She offered to become his spiritual adviser, and so she began to learn about the Louisiana prison system. She was with Sonnier when he was executed in 1984, and she has been speaking out against the death penalty ever since.
“Before that, I had never stood up for something,” she said.
Tuesday evening, she was honored for standing up.
Before the reception began, the courtyard of the recently renovated Cafe Reconcile was full of people, and so was the beautiful new Emeril Lagasse Foundation banquet area on the second floor. Everyone wanted to see Sister Helen and congratulate her.
Cafe Reconcile was the perfect venue for the celebration. The faith-based organization teaches life skills and job training to the neediest young people of New Orleans and gives them a future. Guests ate delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared and served by students in the program.
When it was time to begin the award presentation, Chris Kerr, director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, tried to steer Sister Helen to the front of the room. It wasn’t easy, because there was always one more person to greet, one more friend to hug. She was still giving hugs when Bill Hobbs, the Ignatian Solidarity Network board president, began his introduction: “Tonight, we are celebrating Sister Helen and all the amazing work she has done,” he said.
He told the audience that the Faith That Does Justice Award was named for the late Robert (Bob) M. Holstein, a fierce advocate for social justice and one of the founders of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice.
He explained that Sister Helen had initially connected with the the Ignatian Solidarity Network in 2003, when she spoke to thousands of young people at the group's annual Teach-in for Justice and introduced those young people to the Dead Man Walking School Theater Project. She spoke again at the 2010 Teach-In.
'One wild and precious life'
When Kerr handed the award to Sister Helen, she told the audience that it was not really about her. “One thing about getting an award is you know it’s a servant role, in the sense that (I'm) like a prism, and you shoot the light through me, and it brings you right to death row,” she said.
She reminded the audience that everyone has an obligation “to give ourselves over to something bigger than us.”
“As (poet) Mary Oliver said, ‘We’ve been given one wild and precious life, and what are we going to do with it?’” she said, challenging everyone in the room. “To be blessed with passion is maybe the greatest gift God could ever give us.”
At the end of her remarks, she received a standing ovation, and Kerr told her that whenever he asked students which speaker was most inspirational at the Teach-Ins, they always have the same answer: "Sister Helen."
Then it was time for a toast. While board members of the the Ignatian Solidarity Network passed through the audience handing out shot glasses filled with scotch -- Sister Helen’s favorite drink -- Kerr raised his glass and began to speak: “For her passionate voice for justice, her care and concern for human dignity and for being a person who calls on each of us and challenges each of us ...”
Finally, Sister Helen grew impatient, raised her own glass, and called out, “C’mon Chris!”
Everyone laughed, including Kerr. “So, let’s drink to Sister Helen,” he said.
And we raised our glasses and drank to her passionate voice for justice and to all that she has done with her one wild and precious life.
She calls her passion to end the death penalty “a journey that’s still happening.”
During an interview many years ago, she took me back to the beginning of that journey, when her audiences were considerably smaller than they are now. “I had my smallest crowd right here in New Orleans, at the St. Christopher Home,” she said. “Three people showed up, and two of them nodded off.”
That was before her book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” was published in 1993, and before Susan Sarandon won an Oscar portraying her in the movie.
Since then, Sister Helen has given hundreds and hundreds of talks and filled countless auditoriums. She wrote a second book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” which came out in 2004. In it, she takes readers with her as she witnesses the executions of two men she believes were innocent, and she shows them evidence the juries never saw.
The first time I heard Sister Helen speak was at Sacred Heart Academy in 1995, and she held the crowd of high school girls spellbound with her tales of death and pain and forgiveness. I’ve heard her several times since then. She always makes me think, and makes me question what I think I know. The stories she tells are always different, but her message is the same: Before you decide how you feel about the death penalty, learn everything you can about it.
“I believe a lot of the people who say they support the death penalty have never reflected on it,” she said Tuesday when we sat down to talk.
A national award for social justice
Sister Helen was in New Orleans to receive the Robert M. Holstein Faith That Does Justice Award from the Ignatian Solidarity Network, a national social justice advocacy organization. We shared a quiet corner at Cafe Reconcile before the reception in her honor began.
The award is given each year to a person “who has demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice grounded in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.” Sister Helen is the first woman to receive the award and the first non-Jesuit.
When I asked her what she has learned in the 20 years since “Dead Man Walking” was published, she said, “I’ve learned I can be on the road a lot. I never give a ‘canned’ talk, so it’s always fresh for me. I never get tired of it.”
She’s preparing for a busy summer because Random House is going to reissue a 20th anniversary edition of her moving best-seller, which will mean a book tour, television and newspaper interviews, and lots of speaking engagements. She’s looking forward to all of it.
“The book does good, honest work, and this is going to give it new life, get it out there all over again,” she said.
Her story has also spread through the Dead Man Walking Opera, which premiered in 2000, and through the Dead Man Walking School Theater Project, which has brought the story into schools across the country since 2003.
Tim Robbins, who wrote, produced and directed the film adaptation of the book, also wrote a stage play with the idea of bringing it to high school and college theater arts and academic classes. He has said he wants young people to learn about capital punishment and understand all its ramifications.
“He doesn’t get a penny for it,” Sister Helen said. “It’s in 230 high schools and universities, and he feels good about doing it.”
Making her way in the world
Sister Helen still marvels at the path her life has taken. She grew up in Baton Rouge in the 1950s, a Catholic schoolgirl, the daughter of a lawyer, a child of privilege. She became a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille and a Catholic school teacher. When she heard that nuns should be involved with social justice, she didn’t think that meant her.
“But I woke up in 1980,” she said. “The people of St. Thomas educated me.”
That was the year she started teaching GED classes at Hope House in the St. Thomas public housing development. She learned a little bit about what it was like to grow up poor and black in New Orleans, and she decided to dedicate her life to helping the poor.
In 1981, she began corresponding with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair at Angola. She offered to become his spiritual adviser, and so she began to learn about the Louisiana prison system. She was with Sonnier when he was executed in 1984, and she has been speaking out against the death penalty ever since.
“Before that, I had never stood up for something,” she said.
Tuesday evening, she was honored for standing up.
Before the reception began, the courtyard of the recently renovated Cafe Reconcile was full of people, and so was the beautiful new Emeril Lagasse Foundation banquet area on the second floor. Everyone wanted to see Sister Helen and congratulate her.
Cafe Reconcile was the perfect venue for the celebration. The faith-based organization teaches life skills and job training to the neediest young people of New Orleans and gives them a future. Guests ate delicious hors d’oeuvres prepared and served by students in the program.
When it was time to begin the award presentation, Chris Kerr, director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, tried to steer Sister Helen to the front of the room. It wasn’t easy, because there was always one more person to greet, one more friend to hug. She was still giving hugs when Bill Hobbs, the Ignatian Solidarity Network board president, began his introduction: “Tonight, we are celebrating Sister Helen and all the amazing work she has done,” he said.
He told the audience that the Faith That Does Justice Award was named for the late Robert (Bob) M. Holstein, a fierce advocate for social justice and one of the founders of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice.
He explained that Sister Helen had initially connected with the the Ignatian Solidarity Network in 2003, when she spoke to thousands of young people at the group's annual Teach-in for Justice and introduced those young people to the Dead Man Walking School Theater Project. She spoke again at the 2010 Teach-In.
'One wild and precious life'
When Kerr handed the award to Sister Helen, she told the audience that it was not really about her. “One thing about getting an award is you know it’s a servant role, in the sense that (I'm) like a prism, and you shoot the light through me, and it brings you right to death row,” she said.
She reminded the audience that everyone has an obligation “to give ourselves over to something bigger than us.”
“As (poet) Mary Oliver said, ‘We’ve been given one wild and precious life, and what are we going to do with it?’” she said, challenging everyone in the room. “To be blessed with passion is maybe the greatest gift God could ever give us.”
At the end of her remarks, she received a standing ovation, and Kerr told her that whenever he asked students which speaker was most inspirational at the Teach-Ins, they always have the same answer: "Sister Helen."
Then it was time for a toast. While board members of the the Ignatian Solidarity Network passed through the audience handing out shot glasses filled with scotch -- Sister Helen’s favorite drink -- Kerr raised his glass and began to speak: “For her passionate voice for justice, her care and concern for human dignity and for being a person who calls on each of us and challenges each of us ...”
Finally, Sister Helen grew impatient, raised her own glass, and called out, “C’mon Chris!”
Everyone laughed, including Kerr. “So, let’s drink to Sister Helen,” he said.
And we raised our glasses and drank to her passionate voice for justice and to all that she has done with her one wild and precious life.
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