This week on From the Vault we explore the challenges that capital punishment presents for a civil society. Perhaps more adept than anyone at understanding the moral and ethical ramifications of the death penalty on society, Sister Helen Prejean is a Catholic nun who became known around the world for her book Dead Man Walking, which chronicles her experience ministering to death row inmates. Prejean, who has worked with inmates awaiting execution since 1981, manages to look at the condemned beyond conviction of guilt – and treat them with dignity on a basic level as human beings. Sister Helen Prejean delivers this compelling speech in May 2000 after an introduction by the Director of the Dismas House in New Mexico.
From the Vault is presented through the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, past grants from the Grammy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners.
First broadcast on Friday, September 23, 2011.
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