Helen PrejeanBirth Chart

Helen Prejean is an American Catholic nun and one of the most prominent activists against the death penalty in the United States. After years devoted to teaching and religious formation, she moved in 1982 to work with marginalized communities in New Orleans, where she began corresponding with and visiting inmates on death row. Those experiences made her the spiritual advisor to several condemned prisoners and led her to witness executions, which informed her public opposition to capital punishment.

Prejean founded the organization Survive, which provides support to families of victims of violence, and served as president of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995. Her relationships with prisoners and her accounts of executions formed the basis for the book that inspired the film Dead Man Walking, which raised her public profile and broadened the debate over justice, mercy, and wrongful conviction.

Author of works that denounce controversial executions, Prejean also engaged in dialogue with Catholic leaders, influencing positions and doctrinal revisions regarding the inadmissibility of the death penalty. She holds consistent pro-life positions, opposing both abortion and euthanasia, in line with the official view of the Church.