October 3, 2003

Prejean, former death row inmate discuss capital punishment

Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., Noble Peace Prize nominee and the internationally-acclaimed author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, visited Loyola as part of the First-Year Experience presentation panel. Prejean was joined by Ray Krone, the 100th death row inmate exonerated since the reinstatement of death penalty in 1976, and Denise LeBoeuf, co-author of the winning brief to the U.S. Supreme Court Kyles v. Whitley, and co-counsel in the retrials that freed Curtis Kyles from death row. The panel was held September 2 and a record crowd of almost 900 people attended the event.

The panel presentations began with Prejean's telling account of the events described in Dead Man Walking. The audience immediately understood why her book was on The New York Times Best Seller's List for 31 weeks and made into a major motion picture. With the same honesty and conviction, Prejean extended her hand to a diverse audience of students, faculty, and members of the Loyola community at large. Prejean is a Catholic nun and social activist who is currently working on her second book The Machinery of Death expected in 2004. She is also founder of the Moratorium Campaign, an international campaign for the end of capital punishment.

Prejean described her role as spiritual adviser to Patrick Sonnier, the subject of Dead Man Walking and the convicted murderer of two teenagers, and her experience living in a housing project in New Orleans. She explained that when America upholds the death penalty it falls in league with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia ­ countries that also support the practice. In her address, she did not shy away from addressing the political problems and controversies that surround the death penalty.

Local attorney Denise LeBoeuf followed Prejean's presentation with a description of her work, including her involvement as co-counsel in the retrials that finally freed Curtis Kyles from death row. She described herself as incredibly lucky. "My beliefs and my work are seamless. I never have to do anything I don't believe in," she said. LeBoeuf stressed the epidemic of the poor and the mentally ill in prisons and challenged the audience to be mad at such injustice.

Exonerated death-row inmate Ray Krone ended the presentation with the gripping story of how the justice system failed him, a failure that resulted in 10 years in an Arizona state prison for murder. With a pathos that filled the room, Krone relayed the story of how DNA evidence eventually found him innocent. He explained how the loyalty of his family and his faith in God helped him survive. He received a standing ovation.

The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer segment and Prejean signed copies of Dead Man Walking.

Sunday Angleton, A'04, Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications