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Title: Dead Man Walking by Helen Prejean ISBN: 0-679-75131-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 May, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.07 (44 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Reflection worth reading
Comment: Sister Helen Prejean's reflection on her involvement with the death penalty is a deep and provocative work that will fascinate and stimulate any person with an interest in morality, religion, ethics, public policy, or emotional growth. Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, there is plenty to find engaging in this book. Prejean writes beautifully and her reflections are full of imagery and detail. Tears come easily. Yet, if you are looking for a balanced, scholarly, or objective analysis of capital punishment, this is not the primary book to read. "Dead Man Walking" offers steadfast opposition to the death penalty in an emotional and true story.
Rating: 5
Summary: Capital Punishment
Comment: Up until recently, I had taken an indifferent view on capital punishment. I never believed the government should have the power to execute people when the government is far from perfect. Additionally, I never believed I should waste my time saving monsters from death when it is an unpopular view. As a result, I never held a strong opinion on the death penalty.
Sister Helen Prejean is a Catholic nun. Stereotypically speaking, I assumed this book would be very one sided based on her religious association. I took an interest in the book only after I saw the movie. The movie combines the two executions discussed in the book into one death row inmate story. Despite the fact that the book can seem redundant at times, Sister Helen Prejean does an effective job of exploring the topic of capital punishment through the role of a spiritual advisor.
The research that went into this book is startling. I was not expecting research on this level because the book was written by a nun. It may be hard to feel sympathy for the two death row inmates in the book. However, it is hard to ignore the inequalities in the capital punishment system. After reading the book, one comes to the conclusion that poor African-Americans in the "Death Belt" are most likely to be executed. Crimes against whites are far more likely to draw capital punishment as well. Defense for death row inmates is inadequate because of the socioeconomic status. These flaws are just the tip of the iceberg.
When we consider the recent flaws found in capital punishment system, it is difficult to support it. For example, Illinois changed the sentences of all death row inmates upon realizing the flaws in the system. Our government is far from perfect. Based on the flaws and corruptions in the system, it is difficult to support a system in which the government orders a sanctioned killing of a human being. There is also another view that goes unnoticed. Often it is the executioners who are most traumatized by the execution, not the government.
This book has changed my view on capital punishment. This change is not because I feel sympathy for murderers, but becuase the system is very flawed. Sister Helen Prejean makes this very obvious in her book.
Rating: 3
Summary: Dead Man Walking Review
Comment: A Catholic nun by the name of Prejean, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, who is friends with two death-row inmates, coupled with a plea for the abolition of capital punishment. In 1982, Prejean agrees to correspond with convicted rapist and murderer Patrick Sonnier, awaiting execution in Louisiana's electric chair. Letters lead to visits, and Prejean becomes spiritual advisor to the condemned man. Her counsel takes over, and Sonnier dies. Both killers come off as repellently fascinating, but the real interest here is in Prejean. Even of those who have taken the lives of others. Her arguments against capital punishment are well known but preached with passion: The death penalty is racist, barbaric, and doesn't deter crime; innocent people get killed, etc. But her real brief lies in the grim details of execution, both in the degradation of the long weeks of waiting and in the torture of the execution itself. To Prejean, the whole story is a web of crimes, the original murder; the execution. The suffering inflicted upon the families of both killer and victim, to which the only moral response is love inspired by Christ, who "refused to meet hate with hate and violence with violence."
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Title: Learning True Love: How I Learned and Practiced Social Change in Vietnam by Chan Khong, Cao Ngoc Phuong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ngoc Phuong Cao ISBN: 0938077503 Publisher: Parallax Pr Pub. Date: September, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day ISBN: 0060617519 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 15 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Essential Gandhi : An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas by Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fischer ISBN: 1400030501 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060953020 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Forgiving the Dead Man Walking by Debbie Morris, Gregg Lewis ISBN: 0310231876 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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