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5. That, I believe, is what it’s going to take to abolish the death penalty in this country: we must persuade the American people that government killings are too costly for us, not only financially, but—more important—morally.

After discussing Gandhi’s and Martin Luther King’s perspectives on nonviolent aggression as a form of social change in Chapter 9, Prejean states her belief that capital punishment will be abolished only when the American people turn against it. In order for that radical shift in perspective to occur, the American people, who are collectively responsible for the actions of their government, must take an honest and informed look at the death penalty. Prejean believes that widespread misconceptions about justice must be corrected, and a moral examination of capital punishment must be undertaken. There is a practical argument against capital punishment, based on the financial cost of each execution, but also a more substantial moral argument: killing, whether done by an individual or government, is essentially wrong. Prejean’s arguments against the death penalty take both arguments into consideration, but it is always the moral cost that lies at the heart of her assessment.

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