23 Facts About Helen Prejean

Helen Prejean is a Catholic religious sister and a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.

Helen Prejean is known for her best-selling book, Dead Man Walking, based on her experiences with two convicts on death row for whom she served as spiritual adviser before their executions.

Helen Prejean helped establish The Moratorium Campaign, seeking an end to executions and conducting education on the death penalty.

Helen Prejean founded the groups SURVIVE to help families of victims of murder and related crimes.

Helen Prejean joined the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille in 1957.

Helen Prejean has been the Religious Education Director at St Frances Cabrini Parish in New Orleans, the Formation Director for the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille, and has taught junior and senior high school.

Helen Prejean's efforts began in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1981.

Helen Prejean visited Sonnier in prison and agreed to be his spiritual adviser in the months leading up to his execution.

Helen Prejean has since ministered to other inmates on death row and witnessed several more executions.

Helen Prejean served as National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995.

Helen Prejean published Dead Man Walking, an account of her relationship with Sonnier and other inmates on death row, and the factors related to her growing opposition to the death penalty.

Helen Prejean's book was adapted as an opera of the same name, first produced by the San Francisco Opera in 2000.

Helen Prejean had been sentenced to death after being convicted of kidnapping and murder in two attacks in May 1980.

Helen Prejean explored the effects that conducting the death penalty has on attorneys, prison guards, other prison officials, and the families of both convicted murderers and their victims.

Since then Helen Prejean has worked with other men sentenced to death.

In December 2010, Helen Prejean donated all of her archival papers to DePaul University.

In 1999, Helen Prejean formed Moratorium 2000, a petition drive that eventually grew into a national education campaign, The Moratorium Campaign, seeking to declare a moratorium to executions.

Helen Prejean wrote a second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.

Helen Prejean tells of two men, Dobie Gillis Williams and Joseph O'Dell, whom she accompanied to their executions.

Helen Prejean believes that both men were innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.

In 1998, Helen Prejean was given the Pacem in Terris Award, named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls on all people of good will to secure peace among all nations.

Helen Prejean gives talks about the issues across the United States and around the world.

Helen Prejean has given commencement addresses to more than 50 colleges and universities around the world.