'Dead Man Walking' author to speak in SLC

Friday, Mar. 06, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Westminster College will present Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, as part of the Tanner-McMurrin Lecture Series.

Sr. Helen wrote Dead Man Walking after witnessing the execution of Patrick Sonnier, a death row inmate in Louisiana; their relationship started out as pen pals and she later became his spiritual advisor. 

Published in 1993, Dead Man Walking was made into a Hollywood movie starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, who won an Academy Award for her role.

Those who have seen the movie and attend the lecture will have to adjust to the fact that Sr. Helen “is not Susan Sarandon,” said Lucille Sansing, Westminster College interim provost, who has known Sr. Helen for 15 years.

However, “she is without a doubt the best speaker I have ever had the privilege to know,” Sansing said. “She will tell you that she’s a Southern storyteller. I’ve never seen her with a list of notes. She just gets up and tells her story, which is unremarkable in terms of its origins, and then remarkable in terms of the transformation.” 

Sr. Helen’s ministry was transformed because of her contact with Sonnier, Sansing said; it has continued to grow as Sr. Helen has encountered people who have lost family members to murder “and as a result she has become more involved with victims right and that side of the issue.”

When Sansing came to Westminster and learned about the Tanner-McMurrin Lecture Series, she suggested Sr. Helen as a speaker because she thought “the opportunity for a whole range of people to be exposed to her message and who she is and the kind of work that she does would just be very exciting,” Sansing said. “Her goal in life is to end capital punishment in all states, but the core message of that is really a social justice message about the kind of responsibilities one needs to put on themselves as just being part of a responsible citizen. … It is a life of commitment and responsibility beyond one’s own self-interest, and I think that’s a timeless message.”

The Tanner-McMurrin lecture series is meant to provide public discourse about controversial religious issues, said Dr. Michael A. Popich, who coordinates the lecture series; he is a philosophy professor at the college.  

The criteria for the speakers include an international scholarly reputation and an engaging topic regarding religion and its relationship to the world, Popich said. Since the series began in 1989, speakers have included Ralph McInerny and Rosemary Radford Ruether.

The lectures are intended to give the audience “the stimulus of being exposed to an interesting speaker on a controversial topic,” Popich said, and to give them a chance to reexamine their own beliefs about the topic. 

Sr. Helen “fits right into the spirit of raising a controversial topic or taking on a controversial position,” Popich said. “There are a wide variety of opinions [on the death penalty], and she holds one of the more radical positions, though it’s certainly consistent with John Paul II’s writing.” 

“Sr. Prejean’s visit is well-timed,” said Jean Hill, Diocese of Salt Lake City government liaison. “Given the debate over the death penalty and surprisingly close vote in the Utah House of Representatives to restore the firing squad, Utah seems poised to reconsider the morality of maintaining this barbaric penalty. Sr. Prejean’s experiences and long advocacy for abolishing the penalty provides a strong Catholic witness to the full spectrum of our pro-life beliefs and the need to rethink our use of a penalty that serves no purpose other than revenge.”

WHAT: lecture by Sister Helen Prejean, “Dead Man Walking: the Journey Continues” 

WHEN: March 24, 7 p.m. 

WHERE: Behnken Field House, 840 South 1300 East SLC

Free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the lecture. Sr. Prejean’s books Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents will be available for $15 each or $25 for two. Cash or check only.