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Voice of Dead Men: Interview With Sister Helen Prejean

NCJ Number
176097
Journal
Human Rights Volume: 23 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 1996 Pages: 12-16
Author(s)
V Quade
Date Published
1996
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This interview with Sister Helen Prejean, who was portrayed by actress Susan Sarandon in the movie "Dead Man Walking," discusses why capital punishment is morally wrong.
Abstract
Sister Helen notes that people tend to attach value to human life based on biased standards of measuring human worth and personal, subjective identification with certain types of murder victims, e.g., victims who are white or who have professional and class status. She advocates viewing all life as having some degree of worth, such that no life should be taken by a moral state. Capital punishment views some people as having committed such heinous acts that their lives have no subsequent worth, so executing them is deemed appropriate. Sister Helen maintains that no human being is either totally evil or totally good and should not be treated as such. She also reviews the scriptural basis for capital punishment in the Old Testament, but bases her opposition to capital punishment on the New Testament idea of loving one's enemies. She states that she is trying to change society's opinion about whether the government has the right to kill those who have killed. She has confidence that the death penalty in America will eventually be eliminated to be replaced by long-term imprisonment for the most severe crimes.

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