42 Quotes by Helen Prejean

Do they deserve to die?" but "Do we deserve to kill them?

I saw the suffering and I let myself feel it… I saw the injustice and was compelled to do something about it. I changed from being a nun who only prayed for the suffering world to a woman with my sleeves rolled up, living my prayer.

I realize that I cannot stand by silently as my government executes its citizens. If I do not speak out and resist, I am an accomplice.

In sorting out my feelings and beliefs, there is, however, one piece of moral ground of which I am absolutely certain: if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.

Once you inject fear into a society of people, they become more and more afraid because they don’t cross over the neighbourhoods and the only information they get about other people is through the media.

Mercy is “stronger and more God-like than vengeance”.

The death penalty is a poor person’s issue. Always remember that: after all the rhetoric that goes on in the legislative assemblies, in the end, when the deck is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die in this country.

It is easy to forgive the innocent. It is the guilty who test our morality. People are more than the worst thing they have ever done.

I watch what I’m doing to see what I believe.