Death penalty opponent will speak at St. Mary's
By Sue Loughlin
Tribune-Star
The St. Mary-of-the-Woods College commencement this year features the appearance of speaker Helen Prejean, an internationally known death penalty opponent.
Commencement is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday in the Cecilian Auditorium.
Prejean is the author of the 1993 book "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States," which was later developed into the Academy Award-winning movie "Dead Man Walking."
She will speak just 11 days before the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Prejean is receiving an honorary degree from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
She has said in recent interviews that she supports public broadcasting of the May 16 execution because it would change Americans' view of capital punishment.
"We need to witness it," Prejean said in an Associated Press report. "We are so separated from this, we don't see the consequences of our actions." Prejean chairs the board of directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
She is concerned about the possibility of violence following the May 16 execution date. She says McVeigh's death may inspire retaliation by people sympathetic to McVeigh's anti-government views.
On Saturday, Prejean will meet with media during a 12:30 p.m. press conference before commencement.
The college has issued press credentials to about 30 media representatives, including the San Francisco Chronicle, German Public Television and several Indiana newspapers and television stations, Foote said.
Because of space considerations, the commencement ceremony in the auditorium is not open to the general public, college officials say.
But for those who can't watch the graduation firsthand, the college has decided to show the commencement using closed-circuit television in O'Shaughnessy Dining Hall, said Ann Marie Foote, Woods spokeswoman.
It has hired a professional firm to tape the ceremony and deliver feeds to broadcast outlets that want it, she said. "This is something we've not done before," Foote said.
The timing of Prejean's visit is a coincidence. "We call it Providence," Foote said.
Prejean had been asked to speak at the Woods in 1998. More than a year ago, she accepted the invitation to be the 2001 commencement speaker, Foote said.
At commencement, about 145 students will graduate, including the first graduate in the Master of Arts in Earth Literacy, Sister Sharon Therese Zayac.
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