The Prejean Arguments

641 Words3 Pages
One of the greatest moral dilemmas of our time is the death penalty. From the very beginning this moral dilemma has spurred heated debates between proponents and opponents. Majority of folks, often victims’ relatives, believe in the death penalty as a fair punishment for the case of murder, while others do not. The other half, deem life to be sacred and do not see the death penalty as a morally just punishment. One in particular is Sister Helen Prejean, who opposes the death penalty and questions its appropriateness. In her book Dead Man Walking, Prejean uses ethos, logos, and pathos to effectively argue against the death penalty and assessing in detail the issues concerning the punishment. Though not all of her points were convincing, Prejean does an excellent job at conveying them anyway. One of the first things Prejean does to convey her credibility to the subject matter is explain who she is and how she relates. She starts first, by explaining where she comes from and how she becomes involved with these criminals on death row. Prejean uses ethos effectively by doing so, which helps her win over the reader’s attention. Prejean also adds in the statistics of the “process of execution”, helping her credibility even more and causes the reader to learn. All in all, Prejean use ethos to her advantage and has earns the credibility that she deserves. While explaining the statistics of the “process of execution”, Prejean also uses logos to her advantage as well. She does so by explaining how much it cost to execute someone on death role and how corrupt our so called judicial system is. “Allowing our government to kill citizens compromises the deepest moral values upon which this country was conceived: the inviolable dignity of human persons (chp.9).” By giving these logical statics and her view point on the corrupt judicial system. Prejean persuades the reader even
Open Document