My Friends on Death Row: Voices Silenced One by One

By Pajama Lady

"My Friends on Death Row; Voices Silenced, One by One" is a book of letters from people on death row -- 31 of them. Most have either been executed or died from other causes. The letters were written by a wide range of people, with many different stories. At one extreme we find the letters of an admitted serial killer. At the other is a man who confessed to a large array of crimes he never committed. Some committed crimes of passion. Some may have been innocent of the crimes for which they received the death penalty. Helen listened to all of them with compassion and a non-judgmental spirit that allowed them to relate to her in a direct and honest manner. In her introduction, Helen writes, "the memories of many incidents have haunted me, and will for the rest of my life. I can still hear, for example, the boots of the official murder technicians stomping past the visiting room as I sat knee to knee with my best friend. They were on their way to test the electric chair in the adjacent room. That same chair would detonate by fire healthy living flesh. I remember him saying, 'I am half way to heaven.' A TV van waited outside to film the hearse. I was aware of the empty prison yard, and the un-empathic guards. I saw that my friend's lips were chewed up because he had promised to be strong for me. His final look will never leave me. Those sounds and images still haunt me."Helen's work with prisoners on death row began when she made a commitment in the back of a church to "love the unloved." As she later discovered, this was very similar to the vow made by another Catholic, Mother Theresa, which was to serve the "poorest of the poor." Helen's ministry began with a single letter to a prisoner on death row. Within a year, her list of correspondents had expanded to 50 prisoners across the US and in foreign countries. The most difficult part for her was losing so many friends needlessly. However, she was determined to live to tell about it, so that she could give a voice to those who were silenced on the gurney. That was her promise to the people on death row. This book is the fulfillment of that promise. Helen has written an introduction and a conclusion, but the bulk of the book consists simply of the letters that prisoners wrote to her. Spelling has been corrected, and in a few places, minor changes in punctuation have been made for the sake of clarity. But in these letters you will find the words and thoughts of the prisoners themselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615752640
• ISBN13: 9780615752648
• Release Date: February 2013
• Publisher: Pajama Books
• Length: 450 Pages
• Weight: 1.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"