Helen Prejean

Sister Helen Prejean is known internationally as the leading voice against the death penalty. Dead Man Walking, which was her first book, not only led to an Academy Award-winning film, but also to a play with a script by Tim Robbins, and to one of the most-performed modern operas (performed in 62 cities on four continents), with libretto by Terrance McNally and music by Jake Heggie. Sister Helen’s second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, was published by Random House in 2004, and River of Fire: On Becoming an Activist was published in 2019. She is currently working on a book about an innocent man, Manuel Ortiz, whom she has been visiting on Louisiana's death row for 30 years.