By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

Prejean: Gospel, death penalty incompatible

Prejean kept the audience's rapt attention with her lively and -- despite the seriousness of the topic -- humorous style. She began by saying, "Now look, here I am in Minnesota and y'all brace yourselves for some southern storytelling. Because, what I want to do is take you through the experiences that I have had and ask you to take it into your heart ..."

All people struggle with the issue of the death penalty "because we are all outraged when we hear about these crimes," she said. "We feel the outrage, and we should, because it is part of moral sensibility to be outraged."

A new awakening to the Gospel led Prejean to her involvement with death row inmates and her opposition to the death penalty. She came to understand the Gospel meant being on the side of the poor people and being for social justice.

"Jesus just didn't preach a dreamy kind of airy spirituality -- everybody love one another. Jesus was inaugurating a new kind of community where no one was left out," Prejean said.

She hadn't known any poor people so she began working in a poor housing project in New Orleans. She said, "I began to look at how hard it is for kids in this neighborhood to make their way out and not to get sucked into the whole drug thing. Because when they go to McDonald's and get that minimum wage job, they are still in poverty. And who do they see coming into the neighborhood in a nice car and a gold chain around their neck? They see where the money is."

A chance encounter with a friend led her to begin writing letters to Patrick Sonnier, an inmate on death row. She didn't know much about death row but she said, "I knew enough to know that if somebody is sitting on death row in Louisiana, he's poor. I'm here to serve poor people. He's poor, so I'll write the guy some letters."

Writing to Sonnier was just the beginning of the experiences that formed Prejean's views on the death penalty. She accompanied Sonnier and later two others to their executions and came to the realization that the death penalty should be abolished. "Human beings are worth more than the worst thing they do in their life," she said, adding that an atmosphere of vengeance exists in this country and it has become politically advantageous to punish criminals severely.

Prejean held out a small crucifix and said, "By the way, this is, you know, the symbol of execution that we wear around our necks, as the symbol of our faith (and) of a very shameful execution. ... It took 400 years for the believing community to use the symbol of the cross as the symbol of salvation because it was so shameful."

Most countries in the world have either abolished the death penalty or are under a moratorium. Prejean is leading a campaign for a moratorium in the United States and she said Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has introduced legislation in the U. S. Senate calling for a moratorium. She added that recent polls show a change of attitude in this country, mainly because so many death row inmates have been proven innocent in recent years.

But, Prejean said, "Even when they have done these unspeakable crimes, they are human beings. ... And what do we do to ourselves by putting ourselves (in a position) that the only thing we know to do as a society is to do to killers what they do to their victims? What happens to us?

"We want to make the choice for life. Those of us who ... say we're pro-life, are we just pro-innocent-life, where we make a big distinction when people are guilty? Well I wonder if the Gospel of Jesus is just for the innocent or maybe it's also for the guilty," Prejean said.

Editor's note: To learn more about the death penalty moratorium effort led by Prejean visit the Web site www.moratorium2000.org.

< Local Archives

© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001