Dead Man Walking (play) work. The University of Scranton was one of the original Jesuit Universities to perform the play in their 2004-2005 season. Sister Helen Prejean, who had become an internationally known human rights activist as a result of writing "Dead Man Walking", first conceived the idea of a stage version of her work in 1998 after reading a "New Yorker" magazine article that said Arthur Miller's play, "Death of a Salesman", had been performed a million times, and was performed every day somewhere in the world. Sister Helen realized that if "Dead Man Walking" could be made into a play its impact
Helen Prejean experiences with Sonnier and with the convict Robert Lee Willie. He had been sentenced to death after being convicted of kidnapping, murder in two attacks in May 1980. Sister Prejean also explored the effects of maintaining the death penalty on attorneys, prison guards, other prison officials, and the families of both convicted murderers and their victims. Prejean has worked with other men sentenced to death since then. In December 2010, Prejean donated all of her archival papers to DePaul University. In 1999, Prejean formed Moratorium 2000, a petition drive that eventually grew into a national education campaign, The Moratorium Campaign,