Providence Sr. Barbara Battista, holds a photo taken during her last visit with Keith Dwayne Nelson, who was executed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, Aug. 28, 2020. Battista was Nelson's spiritual adviser and was present as he was executed. (AP/Michael Conroy)
Sr. Barbara Battista wasn't in prison ministry and didn't visit the men incarcerated at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, like other Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.
But she was outspoken, and that's what Keith Dwayne Nelson wanted.
It was July 2020, and Nelson was scheduled to be the fifth person executed in a spree of 13 carried out by President Donald Trump and his attorney general, William Barr, between July 14, 2020, and Jan. 16, 2021.