The Death of Innocents

Sister Helen Prejean's second book, The Death of Innocents, was published at the end of 2004 with the paperback version being published in January 2006.

In Sister Helen's own words:

"The book contains the stories of two men I believe to be innocent who were executed and whom I accompanied to their deaths. The stories are going to break your heart.

"Then there's the story of the Supreme Court and the appeals courts which deny constitutional rights and rubber stamp death sentences without ever allowing a fresh hearing of the evidence. I encountered Justice Antonin Scalia in the New Orleans airport (would you believe he goes duck hunting with my brother Louie in Louisiana?). My encounter with him opens the chapter entitled 'The Machinery of Death.'

"The last chapter is called 'The Death of Innocence' and tells stories of jurors and prosecutors and judges and wardens and politicians who get tainted and corrupted by the death penalty. In the end, with government killings snaring both innocent and guilty alike, we all lose our innocence."