Sister Helen Prejean is the author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States which is about her experience of being a spiritual advisor to a man on death row. She spoke at Syracuse University on October 7. Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph’s and calls herself a “southern storyteller.” The beginning of her journey is when she was “awakened” by another Nun speaking about the poor. It was then that she realized that she didn’t know any poor people. She explained that culture puts blinders on people; like how people, including herself, donate food to the poor on Thanksgiving and that is all they do for them. She explained that culture makes it seem like one meal is a huge contribution and they don’t need to do anything else, but in reality one meal won’t help the people get out of poverty. When she was growing up she never questioned segregation because that was how society was, the culture of society kept her happy and the rest of the people happy so there was no need to question it. Once Sister Helen moved into the St. Thomas Housing Project she started to realize how much discrimination was present.
When she was at the Housing Project, she was asked to write a letter to a man on death row and later became his spiritual advisor. Throughout her time as a spiritual advisor she realized how many people executions affect. She explained that many American citizens distance themselves from the death penalty and don’t think about the consequences it has on others. Sister Helen told her audience that the death penalty puts God-like decisions in ordinary people’s hands and even though it is someone’s job to end the person’s life many still feel responsible as if they are committing a murder. Sister Helen brought insight on the execution in which she wrote her novel about and she was a very humorous yet intelligent southern storyteller.