Helen Prejean inmates on Death Row and witnessed several more executions. She served as National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995. She published "Dead Man Walking" (1993), an account of her relationship with Sonnier and other inmates on death row, and the factors related to her growing opposition to the death penalty. The book was adapted for a 1995 feature film of the same name; she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon. Her book was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000; and as a play. For her book, she drew from her
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,