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 recent history of death penalty decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States and the record of George W. Bush as Governor of Texas. In 1998, Prejean was given the Pacem in Terris Award, named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls on all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. "Pacem in terris" is Latin for "Peace on Earth." Prejean now bases her work at the Death Penalty Discourse Network in New Orleans. She gives talks about the issues across the United States and around the world. She and her sister