by Helen Prejean, interviewed by Vicki Quade

About the author: Helen Prejean is a Catholic nun in the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille. She is also an anti-death penalty activist and the author of Dead Man Walking. Prejean is interviewed by Vicki Quade, an editor of the quarterly journal Human Rights.

Vicki Quade: We are taught that life is sacred, yet the people you deal with don’t believe that.

Helen Prejean: We are taught in the American way of life that some life is sacred. Innocent life is sacred. I don’t know that we’ve ever been taught that guilty life is sacred.

Idon’t think we’ve been taught justice even in the ways that our laws are enacted. We have always been taught that some...