Dead Man Walking Quotes

“In sorting out my feelings and beliefs, there is, however, one piece of moral ground of which I am absolutely certain: if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
― Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“There are spaces of sorrow only God can touch.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I realize that I cannot stand by silently as my government executes its citizens. If I do not speak out and resist, I am an accomplice.”
― Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Patrick had asked why people wanted to kill Mr. Sonnier.
"Because they say he killed people," Bill had answered.
"But, Dad"," Patrick had asked, "then who is going to kill them for killing him?" (p. 60)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“no government is ever innocent enough or wise enough or just enough to lay claim to so absolute a power as death. (p. 21)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I have no doubt that we will one day abolish the death penalty in America. It will come sooner if people like me who know the truth about executions do our work well and educate the public. It will come slowly if we do not. Because, finally, I know that it is not a question of malice or ill will or meanness of spirit that prompts our citizens to support executions. It is, quite simply, that people don't know the truth of what is going on. That is not by accident. The secrecy surrounding executions makes it possible for executions to continue. I am convinced that if executions were made public, the torture and violence would be unmasked, and we would be shamed into abolishing executions. We would be embarrassed at the brutalization of the crowds that would gather to watch a man or woman be killed. And we would be humiliated to know that visitors from other countries - Japan, Russia, Latina America, Europe - were watching us kill our own citizens - we, who take pride in being the flagship of democracy in the world. (p. 197)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“if we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well. And I end by challenging people to ask themselves whether we can continue to allow the government, subject as it is to every imaginable form of inefficiency and corruption, to have such power to kill. (p. 130)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I keep thinking of the gifts of my own upbringing, which I once took for granted: I can read any book I choose and comprehend it. I can write a complete sentence and punctuate it correctly. If I need help, I can call on judges, attorneys, educators, ministers. I wonder what I would be like if I had grown up without such protections and supports. What cracks would have turned up in my character?”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“The death penalty costs too much. Allowing our government to kill citizens compromises the deepest moral values upon which this country was conceived: the inviolable dignity of human persons. (p. 197)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Don't you miss having a man? Don't you want to get married?"
He [Patrick Sonnier] is simple and direct. I'm simple and direct back.
I tell him that even as a young woman I didn't want to marry one man and have one family, I always wanted a wider arena for my love. But intimacy means a lot to me, I tell him. "I have close friends - men and women. I couldn't make it without intimacy."
"Yeah?" he says.
"Yeah," I say. "But there's a costly side to celibacy, too, a deep loneliness sometimes. There are moments, especially on Sunday afternoons, when I smell the smoke in the neighborhood from family barbecues, and feel like a fool not to have pursued a "normal" life. But, then, I've figured out that loneliness is part of everyone's life, part of being human - the private, solitary part of us that no one else can touch." (p. 127)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Who killed this man [Patrick Sonnier]?
Nobody.
Everybody can argue that he or she was just doing a job - the governor, the warden, the head of the Department of Corrections, the district attorney, the judge, the jury, the Pardon Board, the witnesses to the execution. Nobody feels personally responsible for the death of this man. (p. 101)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking

“Nonviolence and nonaggression are generally regarded as interchangeable concepts - King and Gandhi frequently used them that way - but nonviolence, as employed by Gandhi in India and by King in the American South, might reasonably be viewed as a highly disciplined form of aggression. If one defines aggression in the primary dictionary sense of "attack," nonviolent resistance proved to be the most powerful attack imaginable on the powers King and Gandhi were trying to overturn. The writings of both men are filled with references to love as a powerful force against oppression, and while the two leaders were not using the term" force" in the military sense, they certainly regarded nonviolence as a tactical weapon as well as an expression of high moral principle." Susan Jacoby (p. 196)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“The prospect that a person will be killed according to the policy he promulgates prompts the [priest] to urge clemency, an incomprehensible position logically.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Well, ma’am that’s hard to do because Vernon Harvey keeps holding these press conferences, mouthin’ off about how he can’t wait to see me fry. Personally, I think the guy is his own worst enemy. He just needs to let it go, man. The girl’s dead now, and there’s nothin’ he can do to bring her back. Even watchin’ me fry ain’t gonna bring her back, but he won’t let it go and he’s just makin’ himself miserable, in my opinion.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“My wife, she’s a good Christian woman, and she supports the death penalty, and believe me, you can’t find a better Christian”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I can't accept that any group of human beings is trustworthy enough to mete out so ultimate and irreversible a punishment as death.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I cannot believe in a God who metes out hurt for hurt, pain for pain, torture for torture. Nor do I believe that God invests human representatives with such power to torture and kill. The paths of history are stained with the blood of those who have fallen victim to "God's Avengers." Kings and Popes and military generals and heads of state have killed, claiming God's authority and God's blessing. I do no believe in such a God.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“The mandate to practice social justice is unsettling because taking on the struggles of the poor invariably means challenging the wealthy and those who serve their interests.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Do you really believe that Jesus, who taught us not to return hate for hate and evil for evil and whose dying words were, ‘Father, forgive them,’ would participate in these executions? Would Jesus pull the switch?”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“New York City, in a state with no death penalty, reduced its crime rate dramatically in the first four months of 1992 — murders declined by 11 percent — which many attribute to increased community policing.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“A society that is unable to convince individuals of its ability to exact atonement for injury is a society that runs a constant risk of having its members revert to the wilder forms of [vigilante] justice …”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“And I end by challenging people to ask themselves whether we can continue to allow the government, subject as it is to every imaginable form of inefficiency and corruption, to have such power to kill.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Isaiah’s words: Do not be afraid … I have called
you by your name, you are mine.
Should you pass through the sea,
I will be with you …
Should you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched,
and the flames will not burn you.
(43:2) As”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Camus”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government — which can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“the numerous other crimes for which the Bible prescribes death as punishment: contempt of parents (Exodus 21:15, 17; Leviticus 24:11);
trespass upon sacred ground (Exodus 19:12–13; Numbers 1:51; 18:7);
sorcery (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27);
bestiality (Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 20: 15–16);
sacrifice to foreign gods (Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 13:1–9);
profaning the sabbath (Exodus 31:14);
adultery (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22: 22–24);
incest (Leviticus 20:11–13);
homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13);
and prostitution (Leviticus 21:19; Deuteronomy 22: 13–21).”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“In the last twenty years at least forty-six people have been released from death row because the errors in their convictions were found in time to save their lives. Some are not so lucky.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Will you dare, I ask, to condemn the unfairness inherent in the judicial system which metes out one brand of justice for the rich and one for the poor?”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“They want to see him made accountable for his actions. They want to see him pay for what he did. So do I. In an ideal world, there would be no need for retribution. But in real societies, punishing the guilty is as integral to the function of law as exoneration the innocent and preventing crime.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate