Neil Salsich's Book Ingestion: Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejan
Other Links of Interest:
PBS Frontline: Angel on Death Row
Loss of Faith: The Dead Man Walking's Forgotten Victims by D.P. Smith and Michael L. Varnado
Louisiana State Prison (Angola) Website
Death Penalty Information Center
Pro-Death Penalty Website
I. A Brief Summary of the Events
Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., is a woman who not only gave of herself and spent countless hours as a spiritual advisor for two death row inmates, she shed light on an often misunderstood facet of the American justice system. Before her book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, there was no proper venue for offering information about the cruelty and injustice of not only the death penalty but also the dead ends most inmates face in the appeal process and the corruption that unfortunatley manifests itself in much of the American justice system.
A Louisiana native, Prejean originally worked in St. Thomas, a New Orleans housing project for poor black residents. She came there after a recomittment of her order, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille, to serving the poor. In 1892, she recieved an invitation to become a pen pal for a death row inmate. She accepted this seemingly uninvolved commitment, unaware that working with death row inmates and speaking out against the death penalty would become her life's work. Her first pen pal was Elmo Patrick Sonnier,a white male who, on November 4, 1997, with his brother Eddie, abducted and killed a teenage couple, David LeBlanc and Loretta Burque; they raped Loretta as well. David, age seventeen, and Loretta, age eighteen, were pulled from their car on a lovers' lane, driven twenty miles into the wilderness, and after Loretta was raped, they were each shot three times at close range in the back of the head with a .22-caliber rifle. Each brother was found guilty of first-degree murder and given a life sentence, but Patrick was sentenced to death because he was the triggerman. The brothers were held at Angola State Prisonfor the duration of their sentences.
After a few friendly letters, Sr. Helen asks if she may visit Patick, and he wholeheartedly agrees, making her his official spiritual advisor. Sr. Prejean offered greater companionship and spiritual advice than the strict and unsympathetic prison chaplain, who felt that all prisoners were "con men" who "will try to take advantage of [others] in every way possible." (pg. 25) Sr. Helen's first visit with Sonnier was on September 15, 1982; she visited and counseled him extensively until his execution on April 5, 1984. Sonnier endured a troubled chilhood: he grew up in rural Louisiana on welfare without a father. He had served a few years in Angola previous to his life sentence for stealing a truck. He had one daughter at the time of his execution, but the relationship between them was nonexistent. Pat had several execution dates scheduled throughout the two year period of his friendship with Sr. Helen, but with the help of Millard Farmer, an dedicated death-row attourney from Atlanta, they successfully manuevered through the corrupted and biased appeal process.
Throughout Patrick's sentence, the issue of who really pulled the trigger and shot David and Loretta arose multiple times. Pat confessed to Sr. Helen that it was Eddie who pulled the trigger and, during a visit to Eddie Sonnier, Sr. Helen learned that it was in fact Eddie who pulled the trigger--the wrong man was put to death! Eddie explained to Sr. Helen that the crime was not premeditated; the Sonnier brothers had not planned to kill David and Loretta, but when Eddie learned the young man's name was David, it had a personal effect on him: Eddie recently had caught is girlfriend sleeping with a man named David, and Eddie believed that the anger and emotion of that experience carried over to his encounter with David LeBlanc. The Sonnier brothers had planned their statments to the police, but both had misunderstood eachother: Patrick thought they both agreed to confess to the murders, but in court Eddie accused Patrick of pulling the trigger. Sr. Helen alerted Millard Farmer of this vital information, but the labyrinth-like judicial system of Louisiana made it impossible for anyone of authority to hear this. As Farmer explained: since the obviously poor-quality trial attourney did not raise this issue at the initial trial, it would not be able to be presented again. Sister Helen's response was notable: "Shouldn't the courts be interested in the substance of the issues, not who raised them and when?" (pg. 45) Eddie Sonnier even wrote a letter to Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards admitting to killing David and Loretta, and Patrick is still executed! This is an example of the problems with the modern judicial system--not only are exremely important issues not able to be raised at any time in the case because of frivolous rules, most poor criminals (as the Sonnier brothers were) are appointed trial lawyers who are either incompetant or have too many cases on their plate to spend enough time with each individual case. Though after a valiant campaign by Mr. Farmer, the courts denied the final appeal process and Patrick was executed on April 5, 1982.
Now deeply involved in and concerned with the death penalty in the United States, Prejean accepted a second invitation to become a spiritual advisor for another death row inmate, Robert Willie. Willie and another man, Joseph Vaccaro, went on an eight day rampage, killing eighteen-year-old Faith Hathaway of Covington, LA, and abducting another young couple, raping the girl and leaving the boy paralyzed from the waist down. The murder of Faith Hathaway was particularly gruesome. Willie and Vaccaro had offered Faith a ride home from a bar and Faith, a little drunk from celebrating her admission into the U.S. Army with her friends, accepted. Willie and Vacarro drove Faith miles outside of Covington to a remote wilderness area, blindfolded her and raped her. Then one of them held her arms while the other stabbed her in the neck and chest. On Wednesday, June 4th, (the murder took place on May 28th), two District Attourney investigators found her nude and decompsing body behind a log in a forest area near Franklington, LA. She had been stabbed seventeen times and her head was nearly severed from the stabs in her neck. Faith's stepfather, Vernon Harvey, was particularly affected by her murder, and has since become one of the leading pro-death penalty advocates in the state of Louisiana. Though he was dedicated to the execution of death row inmates (Robert Willie in particular) and the righteousness of the the death penalty, he was respectful towards Sr. Prejean and they became close friends. He described their relationship like this: "We're like different baseball teams--different points of view, but we respect eachother." (pg. 140)
Robert Willie was a cocky and proud man who, at first glance, seemed to take pride in his lifetime of recklessness and lawlessness. During his trial he was visibly disrespectful towards the prosecution and the Harveys. At his pardon board hearing, his statement (supposed to express remorse and literally beg for his life) was nothing more than a showing of his brashness and pride, saying that he will not "beg" (pg. 160) for his life and that "this whole case was politically motivated from the beginning." (pg 160) However, he was polite and respectful to Sr. Helen and expressed remorse for his crime before he was executed.He was adamantly against over-reaching goverment control and was suprisingly well-learned in political matters. (He wound later, through his letters of protest to the Governor, achieve greater priveleges for Angola inmates, such as better lit cells and the right to purhase and own more goods.) Despite the attempts of Prejean and a handful of dedicated volunteers and lawyers, Willie's pardon hearing was unsucessful and he was executed on December 27, 1984. His final statement is worth noting: "I would just like to say, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, that I hope you get some relief from my death. Killing people is wrong. That's why you've put me to death. It makes no difference whether it's citizen, countries, or governments. Killing is wrong." (pg. 211)
Sr. Helen Prejean
II. Key Points of the Author
Melded into the story of Sr. Prejean and her relationships with Sonnier and Willie are some compelling arguments, insightful observations, and revealing truths about the death penalty and its social and racial overtones and the faultiness of the American judicial system. Early on in her life, Prejean learns that "being kind in an unjust system is not enough"--you must take a stand against the system and strive for change. (pg 7) Before she even became involved in Sonnier's case and her anti-death penalty work, she observed something unsettling around her, especially because she was living and working in an impoverished area: as social programs are cut, new prisons are built. One can conclude that if there were an increase in social programs there would be a decrease in crime, and there would be less of a need to build more prisons.
After the incident in which Eddie Sonnier's deficient trial lawyer failed to even interview him before he called him to the stand to tesitify, it was clear to Prejean that the inmates had little chance to get a sucessful appeal because their court-appointed lawyers were either inexperienced or had too many cases on their plate to begin with. Chava Color, a friend of Prejean's (the man who asked Helen to be a pen pal for Sonnier in the first place) explained it effectively: "One of our biggest challenges here is recruiting lawyers to represent these death-row inmates--free of charge, of course--and these petitions take hours and hours to prepare. Attourneys aren't exactly lining up outside the door for this job." (pg. 14)
Faults are evident in the actual execution process itself; Sonnier and Willie were both executed by electrocution. Electrocution is the accepted method because it is believed to be as quick and painless as possible. On the contrary, for the death to be quick and painless, the full electric current would have to reach the brain. Instead, only a small portion reaches the brain because most the of the current travels over the skin to reach the other electrodes (electrodes are placed on the head, the temples, the chest and legs). Thus the executions are extremely painful because the prisoner remains conscious for some time; most of the current is applied to the skin, not the brain, resulting in the prisoner burning alive. When the current is turned off, the prisoner usually is still--this is believed as a sign that he can no longer feel. In fact, the prisoner cannot move because the electric current has stimulated his muscles maximally--he is actually in intense pain but cannot physically express it.
Elements of racism are also present in the judicial system. Blacks are much more likely to be on death row than whites, because blacks in the south are generally poorer than whites and can not afford capable lawyers to defend them. In addition, as Millard Farmer explains, "even thought the Constution promises a right to a jury of one's peers, it's common practice for prosecutors to elimate blacks from the jury because blacks are less likely than whites to impose death." (pg 48) To sum it up the sad truth, race, poverty and geography determine who gets the death penalty.
Sr. Helen also brings up some interesting insights as to the true nature and purpose of the death penalty. If the goverment maintains that killing is wrong, how can they kill so prevent killing? If the practice of setting a good example means anything, the death penalty should not make much sense. The death penalty is a simpflified answer to a very complicated moral problem and does nothing but tell society that killing people is an acceptable way of dealing with one's problems. The government attitude towards the death penalty is this: that it provides an example to people of what happens to murderers and serves to prevent crime. However, crime has by no means decreased in those states with the death penalty over the years. In fact, those states without the death penalty have lower rates of crime than those with it, and the states that have in recent years banned the death penalty have seen a decrease in crime. Goverment officials, though they may be moral people, hide from their moral obligations when dealing with the death penalty. When Prejean met with Governor Edwards, he said that he was simply doing his job, and though he was a Christian, he did not let his moral beliefs interfere with his legal and political obligations.
Not only did Prejean encounter social and political faults of the death penalty, she was struck by the incredible personal effects it had on Sonnier. She related a profound insight when waiting with Sonnier on the night of his execution: "I remember Jesus' words that we do not know the day nor the day nor the hour [of our death]. But Pat knows. And in knowing he dies and then dies again." (pg. 90) I believe that is the true agony of the death penalty--above all the social and political problems.
In response to traditional pro-death penalty views (that the Bible justifies the death penalty), Prejean offered some very distinguished rebuttles. The old testament comes from a semi-nomadic wandering Jewish people, who most likely could not containg dangerous criminals safely. Today criminals can be safely contained. The Catholic Church's offical stance reflects this; the Catechism states that the death penalty is wrong unless the criminal cannot be safely contained, which is not the situation in most cases today. As a side note, each death sentence costs an estimated 3.18 million dollars, as compared to the average cost of life imprisonment (40 years): 516, 000 thousand dollars. (pg 129)
Sr. Helen working the crowd
III. A Reader's Response
I had never been well-educated about the death penalty, but I have always believed it was wrong. The book did not change my view on it, but it cured my ignorance of the issue and brought to light the incredible complexity of the issue. I was stunned at the ridiculousness of much of the judicial system, especially the rule that important evidence must me brought up at the original trial. Also, I had no idea of the effects race and social class had on one's chances of being on death row. I always believe that one's crime determined whether or not he was on the death penalty. In fact, I found that rich people, especially white people, never end up on death row, despite even the most terrible crimes, because they can hire highyl professional lawyers to get them out of it. They might still serve a lengthy/life sentence, but at least they would not be put to death. Though this book did not change my view on the death penalty, it further strengthened my stance and was truly eye opening in all its aspects of the death penalty. It is a morally challenging book for anyone who is pro-death penalty, and provides an anti-death penalty stance while still respecting the victims and their families and devoting time to discussing the effects that both the crime and the execution have on the victims' families.
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