AMY GOOD MAN: It is Democracy now!, democratienow.org, The quarantine report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we take a closer look at the five unprecedented federal executions that President Trump’s Justice Department has scheduled ahead of inauguration day.

On December 10 – International Human Rights Day – the federal government plans to kill a 40-year-old black man named Brandon Bernard. He was 18 when he was allegedly an accomplice in the murder of a young white couple. During his trial, his lawyers did not make any opening statements. At the sanction stage, they did not call any witnesses. Of the 12 jurors, all but one were white. Now five of the jurors say they think Bernard shouldn’t be executed. A former Assistant US Attorney who helped secure his death sentence wrote in Indianapolis Star, I quote: “Executing Brandon would be a terrible task for the honor of the nation.” It was one of the prosecutors who prosecuted him.

The day after Bernard’s death, Alfred Bourgeois, another black man, was to be executed by the federal government on December 11. As we reported, on January 12, Lisa Montgomery is expected to be the first woman executed by the federal government in almost 70 years. The Trump administration rejected his request for a stay. On January 14, Cory Johnson, another black, is to be put to death. According to Johnson’s lawyers, he has an IQ of 69, which means he’s lower than the standard used by the Supreme Court to determine whether an execution would be cruel and unusual punishment. And on January 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the federal government is expected to execute Dustin Higgs, another black man, who was sentenced to death for his role in the murder of three women even though he did not. did not kill them, according to the theory known as the law of the parts.

For more, we continue with Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s best-known anti-death penalty activists.

Sister Helen Prejean, if you can comment on this unprecedented story – not in a hundred years has a lame administration executed one, let alone five, prisoners during this period.

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN: It just shows that when you give absolute power over life or death to government officials, they can really do whatever they want. An interesting thing about Grover Cleveland, in the days of the lame ducks where he executed people – he had once been a sheriff in Erie, New York, and carried out executions, so he had it in his blood.

And then to make that happen, it’s just – see, I went with six people to the execution. It’s that absolute power to take a living human being and make these impenetrable decisions along the way, as I mentioned earlier – first of all, even assuming that among all the murderers you’re going to be able to identify the “worst of the worst” either by their character – by their very nature they’re mean people – or by what they’ve done, to determine that they’re in a special category of their own, and you can distinguish them, then believe that we can set up a jury system, the trial.

And the fundamental flaw in all of these things is that at trial you’re supposed to have a contradictory way of getting to the truth. So you have prosecutors who present, “There is forensic evidence. Here is the crime scenario. But you’re supposed to have a defense, that’s supposed to be able to tell this jury, “Decide the whole story of the person who committed the crime.” You still have to look at the guilt, like Lisa Montgomery, the guilt of somebody that’s psychotic, who’s been brutalized and tortured her whole life, and then identify the – identify her with the crime, that she should be killed, that is so imperfect. And the suffering is so great.

And here’s the thing. Here is why I wrote dead man walking. And this is why I just wrote River of fire to be aware of these injustices and then be an active citizen by doing something. This is all a secret ritual. The public will not be anywhere near and cannot be near Lisa Montgomery and what she is suffering now, which will mean when she is put in a male prison. If we didn’t have people like Democracy now!, if we didn’t have the media, if we didn’t have activists and witnesses out there seeing these things, people would just say, “Oh, that’s a terrible crime. She deserves to die. It is such a superficial and thin way of approaching a deeply moral problem.

So what we, you and I – what are we doing now to bring the audience closer to this, and what we need to find an alternative – what people are actually doing. We abolish the death penalty in states. We have fallen to 2% of counties where prosecutors still go a little after the death penalty, side by side with other prosecutors who never go, because it is up to the person to choose whether or not to die.

Take Brandon Bernard. I got involved in his case. And just twice now, I have been able to participate in conference calls with him and with his lawyers, trying to save his life. And he described – it would be like three Fridays ago. So he grew up on death row in Terre Haute. He was only 18 when the crime happened. Expressed remorse. I can’t even imagine. He was just a young child when this crime happened and these people were killed. And he played a part in it, but anyone who knows Brandon knows he would never have consented to kill people like what happened.

At his trial, a so-called expert on future dangerousness, who has now been widely debunked as totally unpredictable. The jury heard he was the leader of a gang. He was not the boss. He was the guy low on the totem pole. So they have an image of him as this brain, this leader who gave all directions for these people to be killed. And let’s go back to three or four Fridays ago. It’s an ordinary day in his life. He gets along with everyone at the prison. Twenty –

AMY GOOD MAN: We only have 30 seconds, Sister Helen.

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN: Anyway, two guards come to his door. They don’t say a word. He usually jokes with them. They put the handcuffs on him, walked him down the hallway where the warden is waiting for him and said, “Here is the arrest warrant for your death.” You will be dead by that date. And, of course, him – then his whole life – it’s torture. It’s invisible. We need to get the word out, and to the American people: Shut up.

AMY GOOD MAN: Sister Helen, before I go I wanted to ask you a question about someone else you have worked with over the years: Bill Pelke, the anti-death penalty activist who died earlier this month at the age 73, co-founded the Journey of Hope group, has partnered with you to campaign against the death penalty. On May 14, 1985, her grandmother Ruth Pelke was murdered by 15-year-old Paula Cooper. Paula was later convicted and sentenced to death, making her the youngest of those on death row. Pelke was among those who pleaded for his life to be spared. In 2013, Bill Pelke was talking to Democracy now!

INVOICE PELKE: But I knew immediately – when my heart was touched by this compassion and forgiveness, I knew that from that moment on, every time I would think of my grandmother again, I no longer imagined how she died, but I imagined how she lived, what she represented, what she believed in, the beautiful and wonderful person that she was. And I knew it wasn’t something that just happened to make me feel good for a while, but it was something to share with other people.

AMY GOOD MAN: So that was Bill Pelke on Democracy now!, with you, in 2013. In fact, he managed to get Paula Cooper off death row, even if she would eventually kill herself. Your final thoughts in the past 20 seconds, Sister Helen Prejean?

SISTER HELEN PREJEAN: Bill Pelke is another example of someone who, instead of being dehumanized by the violence suffered by his beloved grandmother, took that courage that she had and brought it to life. And he fought for it all his life, to end the death penalty. It was he who was waiting for Paula Cooper when she was released from prison, and it played such a role, because he believed in life and that all human beings could be redeemed.

AMY GOOD MAN: Sister Helen Prejean, thank you very much for being with us, one of the world’s best-known anti-death penalty activists.

And at the end of today’s show, a very happy birthday to Deena Guzder. Democracy now! produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Libby Rainey, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Carla Wills, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud and Adriano Contreras. Special thanks to Julie Crosby. I am Amy Goodman. Thanks for join us.