Sr. Helen Prejean on Rachel Maddow tonight...

[Fantine]

From Fr. James Martin, SJ's Facebook page:

Tune in! Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, just told me that she's going to be on "The Rachel Maddow Show" tonight. It's the 20th anniversary of her now-classic book "Dead Man Walking." Sister Helen is a good friend and a great hero to me.

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States: Helen Prejean: 9780679751311: Amazon.com: Books

Having heard her speak twice in person, I know that you are in for a transformational experience if you tune in.

 

[S.ilvio]

That will be interesting

I'm not a fan of Maddow I must say but its will be good to hear from Sr. Helen...

 

[Gwendolyn]

But Rachel Maddow is an evil homosexual in league with Obama to take over the world. We can't watch her show. It would be sinful.

 

[S.ilvio]

But Rachel Maddow is an evil homosexual in league with Obama to take over the world. We can't watch her show. It would be sinful.

She's a nauseatingly arrogant, sneering broadcaster. Far better reason to avoid her show...

 

[WarriorAngel]

Silv.

I have nothing to add - anyway, i cant watch.

Is Prejean related to Postjean? jk jk... chill.

 

[S.ilvio]

In fairness, Sr. Helen has done wonderful work throughout her life, supporting people on Death row and their families...

 

[WarriorAngel]

New Oxford Review

I didnt know this.... ^

 

[JimR-OCDS]

never mind

 

[ZaidaBoBaida]

I saw Prejean speak in Richmond at the time of the O'Dell execution. If you're going to jump on the "Oh this poor innocent man!" band wagon - pick a good one. Joe O'Dell was in prison for murder, murdered another inmate - God help us made parole - then murdered not only the girl he was executed for - he was wanted in Florida for a similar murder.

 

[WarriorAngel]

Putting Prejean in perspective :: Tim and Terri Palmquist’s blog

Or this.... ^

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Pass.

 

[WarriorAngel]

If she isnt concerned with children in the womb and actively misconstrues the murderers stories on death penalty - then she is a hypocrite on both counts.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

[Rhamiel]

Putting Prejean in perspective :: Tim and Terri Palmquist’s blog

Or this.... ^

at first I was not that bothered by all this

I mean, not everyone has to talk about abortion, her role is working with prisoners and the justice system...

then I read some of her quotes about birth control and abortion.
horrible stuff

 

[Fantine]

Before I ever attended a lecture of Sister Helen's, I read an article about her in "Catholic Digest." At the time we had been very seriously wronged by someone, and I was holding a truckload of anger and bitterness.

Then I read what Sister Helen said about forgiveness, and it made so much sense to me. How we need to forgive for ourselves--so that we can reach closure, so that we can move on. That often when we don't forgive we're carrying around this huge burden and the person who hurt us, blissfully unaware of what (s)he's done, has moved on to ruining other people's lives...

We've talked about forgiveness here before. A bunch of you always say, "Tie your sufferings to the sufferings of Jesus...." but I don't know how that teaches us to heal...or to reach closure...or to move on.

Instead, Sister Helen's message was empowering, letting people know they could heal, they could recover...even though she cried with them and wept with them, too.

And so the first time I saw Sister Helen, I already owed her a debt of gratitude, because reading what she'd written taught me the necessity of forgiveness.

I was about 45 before I learned it--I hope you all learn it sooner than I did.

I may catch her on the later show. I went to yoga with my daughter, something I don't usually do--she's so good at it (and almost forty years younger) and I feel like the yoga dummy...but the teacher said tonight that she's really noticed how much improvement I've made since I started my health and fitness campaign.

 

[silverrune]

The death penalty makes murderers of everyone involved with the sentencing. It's barbaric. And especially so for the wrongly convicted. Where do they get a second chance or an appeal when their life is in the balance?



Executed Today 1984: Elmo Patrick Sonnier, Dead Man Walking


I watched the movie, Dead Man Walking. Very sad. I didn't know the real inmate, Patrick Sonnier, was electrocuted. The movie was a different portrayal of the case.

Very well cast in the part of Sean Penn as in how much he looked like Mr.Sonnier.

Susan Sarandon was excellent though not as close in appearance to the real life sister Helen.

 

[WarriorAngel]

First, however, she details her thoughts and feelings at witnessing the execution of these two men. She sets out to demonstrate that the two are actually innocent of their crimes. Hers is the latest effort to identify an execution of someone who was actually innocent, a task that death penalty abolitionists have been furiously, but thus far fruitlessly, pursuing. In doing so, she ignores many facts about these two cases that do not support her claims. The book is moreover riddled with factual errors and misrepresentations.

She promises Dobie Williams, a black man, she will "tell the truth" to the world about his case. Williams had confessed to repeatedly stabbing his victim, Sonya Knippers, a white woman at home with her husband, after climbing in her bathroom window.

Ok - here is something that gives me GREAT pause.

Ya know how the Church seeks ppl confess their sins fully at the end of life - [esp knowing its the end] - according to the trial - evidence and confession of this man - per witnesses - and overwhelming evidence - he was guilty.

The big issue i have is - letting these men die 'while lying' - lacking contrition to their acts.

If you read the full New Oxford Review - the evidence in the blood in the house which is his - is evidence of his misdoing and murder.

... the presence of Williams's blood on a curtain in the bathroom. Blood typing had shown this blood to be consistent with Williams's but inconsistent with the victim or her husband. After the trial, the same prosecutor who had just "railroaded" Williams agreed to a stay of execution so that DNA testing, unavailable at the time of the trial, could be performed. This DNA test was performed by an independent lab in Dallas, which concluded that there was a one in nearly four billion chance that the blood could have been someone's other than Williams's.

So if this man states later he is innocent - how did his blood get on the crime scene. DNA is accurate - and a lab was used in his stay...

So - did Sr - cause him to find a harsher judgment by not allowing him to admit fault in the end? By instead giving him 'an excuse' and assist in disallowing him contriteness of heart?

In that case - now i worry.
Lord have mercy on all involved.

 

[Fantine]

I watched the movie, Dead Man Walking. Very sad. I didn't know the real inmate, Patrick Sonnier, was electrocuted. The movie was a different portrayal of the case.

Sr. Helen says Patrick Sonnier was a composite of a number of death row inmates she accompanied on their final journey.

If you think the movie was wrenching, you won't be able to believe how wrenching the opera was. It's a very contemporary opera, sung in English. Because opera is sometimes difficult to understand, the libretto appears on screens to the sides of the stage, as it would in an Italian opera.

dead man walking--the opera - Bing Videos

 

[WarriorAngel]

A thot came to me - and i seriously dont want to cast aspersions on her character - but is it possible that Sr Prejean fell under the 'thrall' - so many in society do - for murderers and want so much for them to not be as reports and evidence show - that she defends them beyond a point of logic?

For instance - the love letters the Night stalker received for marriage proposals. He received a good number - so we know a strange affect does occur on ppl for those in this situation.

Is it possible - barring any mention of the dignity or life of the victims - she put all her effort into the murderers because she too felt something as a strong affection and or closeness to these ppl - not wanting to believe in their guilt for them...?

I should think her lack of including the victims - only makes the appeal of the murderer that much stronger - if the murder is down played - or even ignored and in some ways denied - it puts even serial killers in a new light.

IF these ppl accepted that she accepted their innocence and they died without contrition.. tho i know she wants them in Heaven [surely] - that the one accepting her invite to uphold innocence may be precisely the sort who will never fit in society.
As in - if they truly have no remorse - are they sociopathic or worse - psychopathic?

So much to consider.

I am in the belief for her to be true to reality - she should have put some human faces to the victims. She didnt. She maintained solely the 'innocence' of murderers - who in our day and age - are usually convicted by evidence and DNA especially in this type of crime.

Lots of food for thot in this.

 

[Fantine]

In "Dead Man Walking" (the book, the movie, the opera) Sister Helen works with the condemned prisoner to help him admit his guilt to God and to ask forgiveness.

She also works with the families of victims to try to help them find closure and learn to forgive (not forget) so that they can move on with their lives.

In the opera, one of the most wrenching scenes had three families--the parents of the two teen victims and Patrick Sonnier's mother--all singing of their grief and anguish.

 

[silverrune]

Sr. Helen says Patrick Sonnier was a composite of a number of death row inmates she accompanied on their final journey.

If you think the movie was wrenching, you won't be able to believe how wrenching the opera was. It's a very contemporary opera, sung in English. Because opera is sometimes difficult to understand, the libretto appears on screens to the sides of the stage, as it would in an Italian opera.

dead man walking--the opera - Bing Videos

I was not aware of an opera. Thank you for the link. Yes, I admit I used more than a few tissues watching DMW.