Sister Helen Prejean Part 1

Sister Helen Prejean recounts her transformation from privilege to her work with death row inmates and their victims’ families. In February 2012 Sister Helen Prejean, one of the nation’s foremost advocates to abolish the death penalty spoke in an event sponsored by the Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty at the Rialto Theatre.

Sister Helen is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” which recounts her prison ministry that led to her introduction to capital punishment through her friendship with death-row inmate Patrick Sonnier. The book became a hit movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Sister Helen also is the author of “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.”

The Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty is a group of organizations and individuals pledged to end the death penalty in Arizona. They are comprised of people who oppose the death penalty for spiritual, ethical, and practical reasons and who may choose variously to work for its abolition through prayer, self- and public education, dialogues, constitutional recourse, and public action.

This is part 1 of a 2 part series that originally aired in March 2012 produced by Amanda Shauger Tucson, Arizona