Helen Prejean her best-selling book, "Dead Man Walking" (1993), based on her experiences with two convicts on Death Row for whom she served as spiritual adviser before their executions. In her book, she explored the effects of the death penalty on everyone involved. The book was adapted as a 1995 film of the same name, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. It was also adapted as an opera, first produced in 2000 by the San Francisco Opera. Helen Prejean was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of Augusta Mae (née Bourg; 1911–1993), a nurse, and Louis Sebastian Prejean (1893–1974), a lawyer.
Safe Passage (film) Safe Passage (film) Safe Passage is a 1994 American drama film starring Susan Sarandon, and featuring Nick Stahl, Sam Shepard, Sean Astin and Jason London. Directed by Robert Allan Ackerman from a screenplay by Deena Goldstone, it is based on the novel "Safe Passage" by Ellyn Bache. Maggie Singer (Susan Sarandon) is an obsessive, superstitious and moderately psychic woman who has premonitions in her dreams. The mother of seven children, only one of which still lives at home, she is getting divorced from her husband, and plans to move into the city and take a job as a civil servant.