Nun shares ideas on law

Sister Helen Prejean was raised in a wealthy family with a two-story spacious house in the 1940s and '50s. \nHer family sought out knowledge and traveled extensively in the United States, Canada and Europe.\nThough Prejean's life was normal for most of her generation, her new quest is anything but.\nPrejean now spends her days dealing with death.\nPrejean, the author of "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the U.S," is visiting the IU campus this week for a series of events called "The Death Penalty: Two Views." She participated in a forum about the death penalty Tuesday night.\nIn her 1993 book which later became a motion picture, Prejean deals with a case of two brothers accused of killing two teenagers. Prejean, a nun, visited with Patrick Sonnier, the oldest brother, while he was in prison.\nThe sentences for the brothers did not satisfy Prejean. Sonnier was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison, according to Prejean's Web site.\n"My first question was about the legal system," Prejean, 64, said. "One brother gets death, and one brother gets life. I wonder how that could've happened."\nPrejean's book was nominated for a 1993 Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1998,1999 and 2000.\nHer book was developed into a major motion picture called "Dead Man Walking" in January 1996. Actress Susan Sarandon starred as Prejean. The movie received four Oscar nominations, and Sarandon won the Oscar for Best Actress.\nPrejean discussed current death penalty issues Tuesday afternoon.\nThe State of Illinois began a series of clemency hearings Tuesday morning for nearly all the 160 death row inmates. Prejean said she welcomes the moratorium movements in Illinois. Moratorium campaigns seek to stop or delay death penalties.\n"The moratorium is definitely right," Prejean said. "Because they had 13 people who've come off the death row that proved to be innocent and they had executed 12 people."\nAlthough Prejean said she supports the movements in Illinois and some other states, she said Illinois Government George Ryan should spend sufficient time to decide whose sentences he will overturn.\nPrejean also expressed her opposition to Timothy McVeigh's execution in June 2001.\n"By killing him, we emulate his actions," according to Prejean's Web site, www.prejean.org. "Like him, we make our point through violence."\nPrejean condemns the death penalty by describing what the families of the victims experienced after McVeigh's attack in April 1995 in Oklahoma City, Okla.\n"One in every four of them wanted to watch Timothy McVeigh die on the closed circuit," Prejean said. "Their problem, what they have to deal with is a loss of their child or the loss of their loved one."\n"Whether or not he was given the death sentence or whether or not it was going to be life without parole in prison, their grieving process or their healing process is around the loss of their loved one."\nPrejean said one of death penalty supporters' arguments is that the presence of capital punishment can deter violent crime. But she said the statistics and the criminals' psychology do not support the claim.\n"All you've got to do is look at the track record," Prejean said. She said studies recently conducted by the New York Times did not show that the death penalty reduced murders. \n"Most people, when they get involved in the acts of violence, aren't thinking of consequences," Prejean said. "They've got a gun or they're on drugs. All they know is they want to get this guy, or something goes wrong, but they're not thinking of consequences." \nThirty-six states enforce the death penalty. Twelve do not perform capital punishment, and two states, including Illinois, have a moratorium on executions.\nAt the moment, Prejean said moratorium is the correct step to take.\n"When you have a war, long-standing war, between two countries, what do you do?" Prejean said. "We have a cease-fire. During the time of cease-fire, you can look at the roots of the solutions for peace, and that's what I think we need to do for the death penalty"