In Part 2 of our interview with Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death penalty activists, she discusses her life’s work and being a spiritual adviser to Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip.
In Part 2 of our interview with Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death penalty activists, she discusses her life’s work and being a spiritual adviser to Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip.
In Part 2 of our interview with Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most well-known anti-death penalty activists, she discusses her life’s work and being a spiritual adviser to Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip, whose May 18 execution date was stayed by the Supreme Court on Friday after Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general filed a joint a motion with Glossip’s defense team saying he did not receive a fair trial.
The case dates back to 1997, when Glossip was working as a motel manager in Oklahoma City, and his boss, Barry Van Treese, was murdered. A maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat but claimed Glossip offered him money for the killing. The case rested almost entirely on Sneed’s claims, and no physical evidence tied Glossip to the crime. Sneed, in exchange for his testimony, did not get the death penalty.
Prejean is the author of the best-selling book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty and, more recently, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey.