Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., (b. April 21, 1939,
Baton Rouge, LouisianaBaton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
) is a
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
religious sister, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, who has become a leading
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
Death row ministry
Her efforts began in
New OrleansNew Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
,
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, in 1981. In 1982 an acquaintance asked her to correspond with convicted murderer
Elmo Patrick SonnierElmo Patrick Sonnier was a convicted murderer and rapist who was executed by electrocution at Angola in Louisiana on April 5, 1984...
, located in the
Louisiana State PenitentiaryThe Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...
. Sonnier was sentenced to death by
electrocutionExecution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. She visited Sonnier in prison and agreed to be his spiritual adviser in the months leading up to his execution. The experience gave Prejean greater insight into the process involved in executions, and she began speaking out against
capital punishmentCapital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. At the same time, she also founded Survive, an organization devoted to counseling the families of victims of violence.
Prejean has since ministered to many other inmates on death row and witnessed several more executions. She served as National Chairperson of the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death PenaltyThe National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a large organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty in the United States...
from 1993 to 1995.
Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking, an autobiographical account of her relationship with Sonnier and other inmates on
death rowDeath row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
, served as the basis for a
feature filmDead Man Walking is a 1995 American drama film directed by Tim Robbins, who adapted the screenplay from the non-fiction book of the same name...
, an
operaDead Man Walking is the first opera by Jake Heggie, with a libretto by Terrence McNally; it premiered on October 7, 2000 at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera.-Roles:...
, and a
playDead Man Walking is a 2002 play written by Tim Robbins based on Dead Man Walking, a book by Sister Helen Prejean about her experiences as a chaplain on death row...
. In the film, she was portrayed by
Susan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
, who won an
Academy AwardPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. Although Prejean herself was uncredited, she made a minor cameo as a woman in a candlelit vigil scene outside
Louisiana State PenitentiaryThe Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...
.
In addition to Sonnier, the account is based on the inmate
Robert Lee WillieRobert Lee Willie was a convict on Death Row at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Sister Helen Prejean, one of the sisters of St Joseph of Medailles, served as his spiritual adviser. She based her book Dead Man Walking on him and Elmo Patrick Sonnier...
who, with his friend Joseph Jesse Vaccaro, raped and killed 18-year-old Faith Hathaway on May 28, 1980, eight days later kidnapping a Madisonville couple from along side the Tchefuncte River in Louisiana and driving them to
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. They raped the 16-year-old girl, Debbie Morris (née Cuevas), who would later become the author of her book
Forgiving the Dead Man Walking and then stabbed and shot her boyfriend, 20-year-old Mark Brewster, leaving him tied to a tree paralyzed from the waist down.
In February, 2011, Prejean donated all of her archival papers to
DePaul UniversityDePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
.
Controversy surrounding Dead Man Walking
In 2005, author D.D. deVinci published
Dead Family Walking which chronicles Loretta Bourque's death and centers on the trials and tribulations of the Bourque family. The book's website accuses Prejean's book of containing "questionable embellishments" and assails the Sister for her support of Sonnier.
Campaigns, book, and awards
In 1999, Prejean formed Moratorium 2000, a petition drive that eventually grew into a national education campaign, The Moratorium Campaign, initially staffed by Robert Jones, Theresa Meisz, and Jené O'Keefe. The organization
Witness to InnocenceWitness to Innocence, or WTI, is a non-profit organization based out of Philadelphia, PA dedicated to the effort of abolishing the American death penalty. WTI began as a project of The Moratorium Campaign, led by Jené O'Keefe...
, composed of death row survivors who were convicted for crimes they did not commit, started under The Moratorium Campaign.
Prejean's second book,
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions was published in December 2004. In it, she tells the story of two men,
Dobie Gillis WilliamsDobie Gillis Williams was convicted and executed in Louisiana for the murder of Sonja Knippers. In 2005, Williams was one of two subjects of a book by anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean...
and Joseph O'Dell, whom she accompanied to their executions. She believes that both men were innocent. The book also examines the recent history of death penalty decisions by the
Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
and looks at the
track recordGeorge W. Bush served as the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 until 2000, when he resigned as governor following his election as the 43rd President of the United States. As governor, Bush successfully sponsored legislation for tort reform, increased education funding, set higher standards for...
of
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
as
Governor of TexasThe governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
.
In 1998, Prejean was given the
Pacem in Terris AwardThe Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award is a Catholic peace award which has been given annually since 1964, in commemoration of the 1963 encyclical letter "Pacem in Terris" of Pope John XXIII...
, named after a 1963
encyclicalAn encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
letter by
Pope John XXIII-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
that calls on all people of good will to secure peace among all nations.
Pacem in TerrisPacem in Terris was a papal encyclical issued by Pope John XXIII on 11 April 1963. It was the last encyclical drafted by John XXIII, who died from cancer two months after its completion ....
is
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "Peace on Earth."
Prejean now bases her work at the Death Penalty Discourse Network in New Orleans and spends her time giving talks across the United States and around the world.
Awards and recognition
- 1998: World Pacem in Terris Award
- 1996: Pax Christi USA Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award
The Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award is given out annually by the organization Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace organization, to an individual who has exemplified Pope Paul VI's World Day for Peace message: "To reach peace, teach peace."...
External links
- Official site http://www.prejean.org/
- Sister Helen's blog http://www.sisterhelen.org/
- Literal.com "Sister Helen Prejean talks about the death penalty" http://literalmagazine.blogspot.com/2011/04/sister-helen-prejean-talks-to-literal.html
- The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project http://www.dmwplay.org/
- Death Penalty Discourse Network http://www.deathpenaltydiscourse.org/
- Angel on Death Row Newspaper accounts of the crimes and executions of Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie, Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/articles/tindex.html
- "Sister Helen Prejean: The Real Woman Behind Dead Man Walking", by John Bookser Feister, American Catholic, April, 1996 http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr1996/feature1.asp
- Would Jesus pull the Switch? by Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., Salt of the Earth 1997
- Conversation with Sr. Helen Prejean by Marilyn Rodrigues, The Catholic Weekly August 17, 2003 http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/03/aug/17/14.html
- The National Review and Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., August 1, 2006http://gaelicstarover.blogspot.com/2006/08/activist-trap-of-discriminating-tastes.html
- Blood on our Hands: An Interview with Helen Prejean, by Shannon Presler, The Other Journal.com January 19, 2009 http://theotherjournal.com/?s=helen+prejean
- "Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis:Sister Helen Prejean of Dead Man Walking Fame", May 2009 http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/05/sister-helen-prejean-of-dead-man-walking-fame-a-walk-the-talk-show-with-waylon-lewis-on-location-special-at-naropa-university/