Sister Helen Prejean , author of Dead Man Walking began as a pen pal to a man on death row. She became close with these men and felt that some people do reform after prison. She believed that the poor were the ones selected to die. Rhetoric says that the death penalty will be reserved only for the most heinous crimes. If the victim has some form of status, there will be an outrage, especially if it is murder.
Death is sought for retribution.
If the victim is poor, the case is not even seriously prosecuted. Whether or not capital punishment and the death penalty will deter crime. A fifteen year jail sentence is given to a man who commits murder. After his sentence he returns to the streets and kills again. He is put back in prison and released again.