“How is the position of Sister Mary Prejean against the death penalty rooted in her religious beliefs, traditions, practices, and values?”
The essence of Sister Helen Prejean’s argument in rejecting the death penalty is her strong belief in a God Who is neither vindictive nor oppressive. She cites the Biblical phrase “an eye for an eye” as a thing of the past and further contradistinguishes the same with passages of God’s loving forgiveness and His divine desire of reconciliation with sinners.
Although she recognizes that there must be some form of retribution that must be given to the victims of criminality, Sister Prejean nevertheless argues that the kind of punishment that a criminal justice system should mete out must be commensurate to the degree of the wrong or infraction done, and to which the state must not find an occasion to commit an act (of killing) which is the very evil (the act of killing) the state seeks to punish or prevent in carrying out its duty to preserve and protect the social order and its inhabitants. In effect, the criminal justice system goes beyond the confines of providing retribution. Instead, criminal punishment has now become a form of vengeance through the instrumentality of the state’s system of criminal justice.
According to Sister Prejean, the whole prosecution process is not even beneficial at all as most of the victims still remain in deep grief and anguish for their loved ones whom they have lost despite the execution and death of those responsible, therefore.
Thus, the death penalty fails to meet justice’s ends in so far as the victims are concerned.
As a nun of the Catholic Church, Sister Prejean adheres to the teachings and philosophy of Jesus Christ. She extends the life experiences of Christ to the wards (Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Willie-both death row inmates) under her care and guidance.