April 6, 2009

Contact:
Julie Spechler
Director, Public Affairs
(954) 262-5348
julies@nova.edu

Felecia Henderson
Associate Director, Public Affairs
(954) 262-5315
fhenders@nova.edu

Nova Southeastern University Welcomes Sister Helen Prejean

Activist to Speak April 16 at The Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center

Ft. Lauderdale (Davie), FL. – Nova Southeastern University’s Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences will welcome Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, a long-time activist seeking to abolish the death penalty in the United States, on Thursday, April 16, in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Sister Helen’s 1993 book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, was a No. 1 New York Times best-seller for 31 weeks and also was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The book recounts her experiences as spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, a convicted murderer who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison. Dead Man Walking was adapted into a 1996 motion picture written and directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death-row inmate.

Sister Helen has become one of the most visible, leading activists in the fight to abolish the death penalty in the United States. Her second book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, was published in 2004, and Sister Helen continues to educate the public about the death penalty by lecturing, organizing, and writing.

This event is free, however, tickets are required. For ticket information call (954) 262-8236 or visit www.fcas.nova.edu/articles/dss/sisterhelen.