Sister Helen Prejean is a prominent opponent and activist of the death penalty and the author of Dean Man Walking and Death of Innocents, which income CGO students read over the summer. The book itself is an intense discussion of the faces of the death penalty, with two in-depth discussions about two men put to death when there was some serious doubt regarding their guilt. She later goes on to discuss larger structural forces contributing the uneven and unjust application of the death penalty, including prosecutors who advance their careers based on the number of people they sentence to Death Row and personality dynamics of the people who make the decisions regarding the legality of capital punishment.

Sister Helen gave a public address to the UO and Eugene community regarding these issues. She is an amazingly powerful speaker, making people laugh and cry by showing her own humanity and emphasizing the profound sense of injustice in our ‘justice system.’ It was a powerful set up for the following days activities with the CGO FIG.

Sister Helen attended an hour-long discussion with just the CGO students and staff where students were able to ask her questions about how her faith informs her activism, what some of her experiences have been and the things she does to get people’s attention. She also talked about how she’s seen the conversation change, especially in light of current events in Oregon, where Gary Haugen, a man on Oregon’s Death Row, gave up on his remaining appeals and asked to be put to death. The situation was an example of the purpose of Death Row, to take the power of making any decisions away from a person and put them in the hands of the government. Even denying Mr. Haugen his request to be put to death could be seen as an extension of government power over what one can do with their own life. This was certainly a controversial and intense discussion. The students had also written up statements in the previous weeks trying to define ethics, which Sister Helen read and responded to, asking questions to push students understanding about where ethics come from, who shares them and the implications in society.

Following this discussion, the students were able to share a meal with Sister Helen in a campus dining hall, which allowed for less formal discussions with the students about Sister Helen’s background and inspirations. From there, the students escorted her to her round table discussions on the international dimensions of the death penalty. This forum consisted of a panel composed of Sister Helen, Terrie Rodello of Amnesty Oregon’s anti-death penalty coordinator, and Greg Kuykendall, the director of the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, who Skyped in from Arizona (The entire panel discussion can be viewed here). The event was open to the public, filled to capacity with both students and community members, and considered a great success.