Sister Prejean
After I saw this movie (which I liked a lot) I went to a talk by Sister Prejean at a University near where I live. It was a small audience of about 50 people. (This is a conservative area, her views are not popular). She has a very thick Louisiana accent, and although I live in the South it was a little hard to understand her. She joked around a lot and was very easy going.
She was pretty much making that lecture tour because she is very opposed to the death penalty, as is Susan Sarandon. (I remember an interview where Susan S. was explaining why she and Tim Robbins had taken this on, she said it was because her young daughter saw on TV that someone had been executed and asked, "If the government says killing is wrong, why does the government kill people?")
My chief interest in the film was the spiritual redemption of the character played by Sean Penn. I said during the Q&A part of the evening with Sister Prejean that the movie didn't show very much about how she led him to the confession, and asked if it was a good depiction of how it happened, and if she could add a description of how she helped him come to that point.
She smiled a little sheepishly and said the film wasn't really an accurate portrayal, that he never did confess to her. I found that very disappointing. I believe we do need to "own up" as she said, to our wrongdoing, and ask forgiveness from God and from those we harm, if that's appropriate. I felt bad that he never had done that, and went on into the next life in that spiritual state.
When Timothy McVeigh was on death row, I wrote him a letter urging him to acknowledge his guilt for killing and maiming people in the Oklahoma City bombing, and ask God's forgiveness and the forgiveness of his victims, but he went to his death proudly saying he wasn't sorry for any of it. (I also think the US govt. should have acknowledged wrongdoing in Waco, and asked forgiveness. Maybe he wouldn't have bombed the Murrah Bldg. in revenge for Waco if they had.)
LATER: since posting this I read her book "Dead Man Walking" and in it she does say that the Sean Penn character admitted to his crime. So I don't know why she said that in her speech in person.