NEW RESOURCE: Sister Helen Prejean’s New Book: The Death of Innocents

In her new book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, Sister Helen Prejean uses her per­son­al expe­ri­ences as a coun­selor to those on death row to explore the issue of inno­cence and the like­li­hood of exe­cut­ing a wrong­ly con­vict­ed per­son. The book also traces the his­tor­i­cal and legal under­pin­nings of the death penal­ty in the U.S. Prejean, who authored the #1 New York Times best­seller ​“Dead Man Walking,” begins her new book by focus­ing on the cas­es of Joseph Roger O’Dell and Dobie Gillis Williams, both of whom she believes received unfair tri­als and prob­a­bly were inno­cent. O’Dell was exe­cut­ed in Virginia in 1997 and Gillis was exe­cut­ed in Louisiana in 1999. Prejean was close­ly involved with each of their cas­es and accom­pa­nied both men to the death cham­ber. Their cas­es sparked ​“The Death of Innocents” and Prejean’s clos­er look at wrong­ful con­vic­tions, inad­e­quate defense, the cap­i­tal appeals process, race, pover­ty, and the pol­i­tics of capital punishment. 

(Random House, 2005). See Innocence and Books.