Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean (3.5)
Many people know this story from the movie starring Sean
Penn and Susan Sarandon. The book is a
drier, more matter of fact account of Sister Prejean’s experiences with the
death penalty both as a spiritual advisor to multiple convicts on death row and
as a champion for the abolition of the death penalty. I appreciated her ability
to look at both sides of the argument, but stay focused on her religious
convictions. She admonishes herself often for not spending enough time with the
victim’s families and she does not condone what the convicted felon has done.
But, she continues to reiterate that if killing is wrong, why does the
government get to do it? She also discusses at length the powerful statistics
of the lack of efficacy of capital punishment as a deterrent, the costs
compared to life imprisonment and most sadly the somewhat random way it is
administered (i.e. a black person killing a white person in the south is far
more likely to be prosecuted for the death penalty than visa versa for the same
crime). Overall the book is interesting and thought provoking, though it is sad
and a bit dry. It was written in 1993 based on a lot of facts in the 80’s. I
would be interested to hear how things have changed since that time.
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