Women on the Row

By: Chelse Melina
Posted In: Opinion

College students don’t often hear or use the words “women” and “death row” in their everyday conversations. Nor do they ponder and lull over the controversy this words evoke. Between studying for finals, writing term papers and shopping for Christmas gifts, life as we know it is pretty hectic.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to “shock” us back into reality and open our eyes to the rest of the world, full of tragedies, misfortunes and heartbreak. While we are stressing about formatting a paper in exact MLA design or working two jobs to make a dent in college loans, there are women and men all over the country who are stressing about much bigger problems and life predicaments, such as being placed on death row.

Kathleen O’Shea, a writer, activist, lecturer and nun for 25 years, opened the eyes of roughly 300 students on Tuesday, October 7, in the Lecture Hall at Salve Regina University. With a somber voice and a grave message to expose, O’Shea briefly introduced the audience to 52 women from around the country.

She spoke about the women’s children, their grandchildren, their successes in life and their heartaches. She described the many different religions these women represented, all of which were tied together with the common threads of love and hope. She then shared another common bond which connected all 52 of the women together: they are all awaiting execution on death row.

Through volunteer work and personal interviews, O’Shea has had the opportunity to meet and interact with every single woman on death row in the United States. O’Shea first became interested in women prisoners as a college student, when she was assigned a project during her undergraduate studies of human relations at the University of Oklahoma. Since her first initial involvement in the prison system, O’Shea has learned to love and respect the women on death row as friends.

She told Salve students, “I really got to know them [the women] as people.”

After O’Shea came to know these women as women, and not simply inmate #236578, it became very evident to her that she needed to educate others about these women, the lives they have lived and the lives they now live behind bars. Through much dedication and organization, O’Shea compiled the sad, often heart-wrenching stories of women on death row.

After contacting an agency and proposing her idea of being a voice for the women on death row in the United States, O’Shea’s suggestion was given a very enthusiastic approval.

O’Shea was given the go-ahead to write the book and was very excited to begin the compiling process. However, at the time, she was still a graduate student working to get her Masters Degree in social work.

O’Shea explained to the audience,

“I got a contract that said, ‘Just write it!’ But I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to finish my term paper first.'”

Needless to say, O’Shea started on the book not long after her term paper was due and published the book, “Women on Death Row; Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars.”

Although all college students may not find that women on death row is “their calling” or something that they feel led to act upon and advocate, O’Shea’s dedication and enthusiasm towards her cause shows college students they are capable of making changes and making a difference in other’s lives. No matter how busy life is or how many tests left to study for, there is always enough time to impact others.