by Rosie Scammell for Religious New Service January 21, 2016
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Two decades after her anti-death penalty work was transformed into an Oscar-winning movie, “Dead Man Walking,” Sister Helen Prejean’s campaign continues with the backing of Pope Francis.
Prejean met with the pope on Thursday (Jan. 21) to deliver a thank-you letter from Richard Glossip, whose execution in the U.S. was halted in September after intervention from the pontiff.
But her celebratory meeting with the pontiff came just hours after another death row inmate, Richard Masterson, was put to death in Texas.
“I said, ‘They killed him.’ And he (Francis) lowered his eyes and said, ‘I pray, I pray.’ He really feels for people on death row,” Prejean recalled.
Masterson was convicted for killing Darin Honeycutt in 2001, although the defense team argued that the victim died of a heart attack during consensual sexual relations.
Tags: Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Pope Francis, Richard Glossip, sister helen prejean, Vatican
