Sister Helen Prejean, the author of "Dead Man Walking" will be speaking at St. Cecilia Church in the Back Bay (behind Berklee School of Music at the corner of Mass Ave and Boylston St).  She has been instrumental in sparking natioanl dialogue on the death penalty and helping to shape the Catholic Church's newly vigorous opposition to state executions.  She travels around the world giving talks about her ministry and considers herself a southern storyteller.

Since 1984, Sister Helen has divided her time between educating citizens about the the death penalty and counceling individual death row prisoners.  She has accompanied six men to their deaths.  In doing so she began to suspect that some of those executed were not guilty.  This realization inspired her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.  Sr. Helen is presently at work on another book, River of Fire: My Spirtitual Journey.