Over 200 students, faculty and community members rose to their feet and gave Sister Helen Prejean a standing ovation at the end of a presentation she gave yesterday in Wilson Hall on the ethical implications of the death penalty.
Prejean is a nationally renowned speaker and author of the bestselling novel "Dead Man Walking," which inspired the major motion picture by the same name.
"I stand for life in all forms," Prejean said. She said she believes everyone is entitled to life whether it be a death row inmate, unborn child or the terminally ill.
Since 1984, Prejean has been actively working to end the death penalty in the United States. In her speech, she spoke about her spiritual journey to becoming a community activist and the implications of the death penalty in society.
Prejean told her audience that before 1981 she had never thought about becoming involved in politics. She said she thought being a kind person was enough in life. But in 1981, Prejean started living in an inner-city ghetto in St. Thomas, New Orleans. It was there that she said she discovered her calling.
"I realized that my spiritual dipstick had been about an inch away from the real stuff going on in the world. I decided to put my boat in the current and try to work for change," Prejean said.
Prejean said living next door to drug dealers and seeing police brutality everyday made her realize the gross racism in the legal system and that the death penalty was being used as little more than a political tool.
During the three years she lived in St. Thomas she befriended a death-row inmate; the encounter inspired her to write her book, she said.
Since then Prejean personally has attended to five executions, each time befriending the inmate and following him through his "agonizing journeys."
Over her 16 years as a community activist Prejean has followed and preached the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi. She said she believes that one should expose evil and resist it nonviolently in order to create a national change in consciousness.
"Any way you do it, the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment. You can't take consciousness out of human beings that's why you can't take the torture out of it," Prejean added.
At the end of her speech Prejean fielded questions about the death penalty and her book. She also encouraged the audience to sign Amnesty International's petition calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty. About 150 people signed the petition at the end of the program.
"She was an awesome speaker," said second-year College student Ellen Birek. "She captivated the audience and could so easily be completely serious or very funny."
"Sister Helen gave an inspirational picture of her journey. She recognizes that there is heinous evil in the world and that people commit terrible crimes, but that it is possible to feel the deep pain of murder victim's families and at the same time say that the state should not support the death penalty," Religious Studies Prof. James Childress said.
Yesterday's program was sponsored by a number of different University and community institutions including the Department of Religious Studies. Religious Studies Prof. Father Gerald Fogarty said he was "delighted to have Sister Helen speak at U. Va. I think it's very interesting that she has come to the state that has the second-highest execution rate in America"
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