In an event that was part spiritual awakening, part Southern storytelling and part moral crusade, Sister Helen Prejean, of Dead Man Walking fame, enthralled a packed crowd at the Divinity School yesterday afternoon.
Speaking before a crowd of about 200 in Andover Hall, Prejean offered a strong indictment of the criminal justice system in the U.S.
The courts, she said, favor the person "who can jump through the legal hoops the best, and who has the best attorney."
"I was naive," Prejean said. "I thought the courts were a place where everyone went and told the truth."
Prejean, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, decried the continuing use of capital punishment in the U.S--in comparison to Europe, where virtually all countries have repealed the measure--and the conditions in which Death Row inmates live.
"All of your human rights are gone because you're in a cage basically waiting to be killed," she said.
She noted that the emotion involved in death-penalty cases makes it hard for many Americans to think rationally about the death penalty.
"The reason is it so hard for us is of course we are outraged when we hear about these crimes," she said.
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