Activist to speak on death penalty

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, came to prominence as an activist against the death penalty with her 1993 book, "Dead Man Walking," which chronicled her experience as the spiritual advisor to a man on death row.

On Feb. 2, she will speak to staff from Albany diocesan Catholic schools at St. Pius X Church in Loudonville. She will also give a public address at Union College's Memorial Chapel in Schenectady at 7 p.m.

The Evangelist asked her some preview questions:

Q. Do you think that it is inevitable that the U.S. will abolish capital punishment?

Sister Helen: It is literally costing states millions upon millions of dollars to keep capital punishment in place. Over $180 million dollars [has been spent in New York to] keep the death penalty system in place.

It is purely about politicians claiming that if we had the death penalty it would deter crime. It is totally unworthy of us.

Q. In a recent Newsweek column, the relative of a murder victim says that being so personally involved in a crime "rendered the academic arguments against the death penalty meaningless." How do you respond to that?

Sister Helen: Other voices of victims say that the death penalty re-victimizes us. It gives the false claim that if we wait 15, 20 years, the state is going to kill [the murderer] and, by our witnessing it, they're doing that for us.

It looks on the surface like that this is what equal justice demands, but look at how long victims wait. They are so vulnerable, so hurt, so confused, so outraged.

[The death penalty is] just more suffering. It's just pure vengeance. It's not worthy of us.

What people are beginning to realize is that [states are] really not using it, so why keep doing it? Why are we keeping this system in place? The politicians are beginning to realize this is not the issue that gets us elected, and they are beginning to move away from it.

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