Sister Helen Prejean is a Roman Catholic nun known throughout the world as a leading advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.  Her first book, Dead Man Walking, was adapted as a movie, stage play, opera, and musical album, and came out of her experience in 1982 serving as spiritual advisor to two convicted murderers on Death Row at Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. Her second book was The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, and her 2019 memoir, River of Fire, talks about her spiritual journey leading her to engage in social justice work. Sr. Helen was born in Baton Rouge.  She earned her bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s Dominican College and her master’s in Religious Education from St. Paul University.  Sr. Helen received the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.  She and her sister, Mary Ann Antrobus, were deeply involved at a center in Nicaragua called Friends of Batahola.