Death penalty opponent, Sister Helen Prejean, will speak at UHD March 3

Sister Helen Prejean, a nationally recognized opponent of the death penalty who wrote “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” will speak at the University of Houston-Downtown at 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 3, in the Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Auditorium on the third floor of the Academic Building.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Prejean’s appearance is part of the Criminal Justice Speaker Series, sponsored by UHD’s College of Public Service. Judith Harris, UHD lecturer in criminal justice who organized Prejean’s lecture, said UHD students will gain a broader understanding of the death penalty by attending the lecture. “Hearing a controversial and internationally known spiritual adviser to death row inmates brings a new perspective students cannot get from a textbook,” Harris said.

Prejean’s book became an Academy-Award-winning movie, “Dead Man Walking,” in 1995. The movie portrayed Prejean’s experiences with death row inmate Patrick Sonnier at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Actor Sean Penn played Sonnier’s character, Matthew Poncelet, and Susan Sarandon played Prejean. Sarandon won an Academy Award for best actress for her work in the movie.

Prejean was Sonnier’s spiritual adviser, worked to prevent his execution and stood by him until he was executed in the electric chair. Her activism against capital punishment sparked a national dialogue about the death penalty and helped shaped the Catholic Church’s opposition to all state executions.

Prejean still campaigns against the death penalty and counsels death row prisoners. She has been a spiritual adviser to six more executed men. She published a second book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” in 2004.

“Dead Man Walking,” the book, was nominated for a 1993 Pulitzer Prize and made the 1994 American Library Associates Notable Book List. The international best seller was No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List for 31 weeks and has been translated into 10 languages.