For death row, a message of love

摘要

When she left home in 1957 to join a New Orleans convent, Helen Prejean was a tender 18. She remembers standing in her Baton Rouge kitchen. Her trunk, stuffed with black and white clothes and a pair of "old lady shoes," was already in the car. Her composure and commitment to God were intact. Her mother asked her if she had fed Billy Boy, the yellow-and-green parakeet she had taught to recite half the "Hail Mary" prayer.