By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Sister Helen Prejean.
The woman who inspired the Oscar-winning film “Dead Man Walking” will visit UNCG to celebrate human rights.
Sister Helen Prejean, whose experiences with death row inmates in Louisiana led her to write the book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” will speak at 7 p.m. Sept. 7. Her speech, sponsored by UNCG’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, is free and open to the public and will take place in Cone Ballroom C, Elliott University Center.
Prejean, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, started visiting Patrick Sonnier in Louisiana’s Angola Prison in 1982. She became his spiritual adviser, worked to prevent his execution, and finally walked with him to the electric chair. She did the same thing with a second prisoner, Robert Willie. Also concerned with the plight of murder victims’ families she founded Survive, which provides counseling and support for grieving families.
“Dead Man Walking” was published by Random House in 1993. The book became a best seller, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and spawned a movie starring Susan Sarandon and an internationally-acclaimed opera. Sarandon won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Prejean.
Since 1984, Prejean has divided her time between campaigning against the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners. She has accompanied four more men to their deaths. In doing so, she began to suspect that some of those executed were not guilty. This realization inspired her second book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” which was released by Random House in December 2004.
See the film version of “Dead Man Walking” Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. in UNCG’s Multicultural Resource Center. The showing is also free and open to the public.
