Helen Prejean

“People are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives.”

“The poor are the ones who get the death penalty.”

“Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment.”

“When we kill in the name of the state, we become the very thing we abhor.”

“You see the suffering of the victims' families, and you see the suffering of the perpetrator's family. It is a cycle of violence.”

“Compassion is not a popular virtue.”

“Grace is what God gives us when we don't deserve it.”

“The journey of faith is a journey of questions.”

“I realized that the question of the death penalty is not a political question, it's a moral question.”

“To be a witness means you are willing to have your heart broken.”

“I believe in the sanctity of life. And I believe in it from conception to natural death.”

“Every person is worth more than their worst act.”

“It is a terrible thing to see a man who has been locked up for decades and witnesses the wounds of his childhood.”

“The death penalty is a remnant of the slavery era.”

“We are all implicated in the systems of injustice.”

“The work is to bring light into the darkness.”

“I'm not for the death penalty, and I'm not for abortion. It's a seamless garment of life.”

“My faith has to be in action.”