"Long in advance the condemned man knows that he is going to be killed and that the only thing that can save him is a reprieve." Page 35

The vocabulary of this statement gives it its direct nature. Instead of putting a humane face on execution, it calls it killing. The prisoner is caged and knows that death is imminent. Last minute reprieves and hearings by circuit courts give false hope and add to the emotional batter of the prisoners. Prisoners, by committing crimes are robbed if their rights to control their lives. Their deaths are even calculated and at the mercy of those around them. Prisoners are not human, they are treated like something to be disposed of. If the battery that is so evident in this quote actually occurs in our prisons, aren't we supporters of torture and cruel and unusual punishment? Of course the crimes are usually deserving of extreme punishment, but victims only die once. Sister Prejean continuously says that by knowing the day and time of their deaths, prisoners "die and die again." Are the executioners playing God?