from Forgiving the Dead Man Walking by Debbie Morris

Debbie Morris was just 16 when she was kidnapped, raped, and terrorized for several days by Robert Willie, the murderer who was played by Sean Penn in the movie Dead Man Walking. This fall she came out with the book Forgiving the Dead Man Walking, which describes how the long-term effects of that crime played out through the next 16 years of her life.

So many people ask me, "How can you forgive someone like Robert Willie?" They’re incredulous at the very thought. But very recently I came across a wonderful book by Lewis Smedes titled Forgive and Forget, which has helped crystallize my thoughts and express in more articulate words some of what my experience has taught me.

He has a section called "Forgiving Monsters" that seemed particularly relevant to my experience. Or to any of Robert Willie’s victims. Or to anyone whose life has been impacted by some horrible wrong. Smedes writes, "If we say monsters are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have. Monsters who are too evil to be forgiven get a stranglehold on their victims; they can sentence their victims to a lifetime of unhealed pain. If they are unforgivable monsters, they are given power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most."

I couldn’t begin to articulate it at the time, but I understood that truth even before Robert Willie was executed. I knew I had to forgive him -- not for his sake, but for mine. Until I did, there was no escaping the hold his evil had on my life.