Sr. Helen Prejean , Anti-Death Penalty Advocate

Anti-death penalty advocate Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J. comes to the Connecticut River Valley on Thursday, September 20, 2012. A pre-lecture screening of the film based on her book “Dead Man Walking” will be screened at 8 pm. on Friday, September 14 in East Lecture Hall in Franklin Patterson Hall, . The screening is free and open to the public. Sister Helen will hold a conversation with invited guests at before going to Hampshire College to offer the September 20 lecture at 8 pm. in the Main Lecture Hall of Franklin Patterson Hall. A book signing will follow in the faculty lounge of the same building. Both the lecture and the book signing are free and open to the public.

Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J is a pioneering opponent of the death penalty, helping to shape the Catholic Church’s opposition to state executions. She is the author of “Dead Man Walking”, an account of her relationship with death row inmate Patrick Sonnier. “Dead Man Walking” became an Award- winning movie, an opera, and a play. Since 1984, Prejean has divided her time between educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners. She has accompanied six men to their deaths. In addition to Dead Man Walking, she also authored “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions”, released by Random House in December of 2004. Prejean’s current book is “River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey”.

For more information, please contact [email protected] or phone 413.559.5282.

Sponsors: Amherst College Office of Religious Life; Amherst College Catholic community; Hampshire College Spiritual Life; Religious and Spiritual Life; and Religious and Spiritual Life.