A friend of mine happened recently to be seated on a plane next to Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking (1993) and The Death of Innocents (2006). He found her to be delightful person to chat with for nearly four hours during their flight. Sister Helen is well known for her crusade against the death penalty and her website encourages a reader to take the time to reflect on this moral issue facing our country. Several states execute convicted killers on a frequent basis. Texas has scheduled seven executions in 2016 and Ohio has scheduled eleven in the next 18 months. Temporary stays of execution have been granted for many of the latter because of the difficulty in obtaining execution drugs.
Writers of crime fiction and thrillers know that real people do horrible things to other real people and deserve whatever punishment is dolled out by our judicial system if they get caught and don’t die first. All too often writers (and I include myself) do not think seriously about the fate they dish up for their evil antagonists. I generally follow the storyline that if a murderer dies during a climax scene, so be it. None of my surviving characters are going to be sorry about the fate the person endured. Forgiveness or remorse are seldom emotions protagonists exhibits towards someone who seriously hurt them or their friends and yet emotions of our characters are key to a good story. But our antagonists almost never exhibit a moment of revelation that they have committed serious wrongs or seek forgiveness as they draw their last breath. I have a few stories that are in the formative stage and it might lead to an interesting climax to have redemption for one’s crimes be a part of closure of a complex plot. Thank you Sister Helen.
