To Prejean, death penalty system is guilty as sin
By Jacqueline Blais
USA TODAY, February 7, 2005


The 65-year-old nun gave herself the playful nickname Prairie Dog Woman. "I had to be in my burrow," she says, referring to her writing quarters, a three-bedroom, one-bath apartment with a spectacular view of ponderosa pines and the Rosebud Mountain range.

"She could rent a house overlooking the beach in Oregon, but it's the world that's here," says Sister Marya Grathwohl, one of the Sisters of St. Francis nuns who runs Prayer Lodge for Cheyenne and Crowe Native American women. "There is a deeper awareness of the depth of the universe. That's what this is about."

As Prejean observes in her book: "Writing is like praying, because you stop all other activities, descend into silence, and listen patiently to the depths of your soul, waiting for the true words to come. When they do, you thank God because you know the words are a gift, and you write them down as honestly and as cleanly as you can."

The Death of Innocents is about the death penalty and justice, a subject she also visited in Dead Man Walking, her first book, which was published in 1993. Two years later, it became the basis for a major film with the same title. Susan Sarandon, who played Prejean in the movie, won an Oscar.

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