Pro-life isn’t just for the unborn, ‘Dead Man Walking’ author tells Cedar Rapids crowd

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Decades after first accompanying a death row inmate to his execution, Sister Helen Prejean is still full of life.

“Can y’all handle southern?” the Catholic nun, who turns 87 next week, joked to an audience of more than 200 people who turned out to hear her speak April 13, 2026, at Mount Mercy University’s Hennessey Recreation Center.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Prejean has kept her accent, but her outlook has changed.

Known for her best-selling book, “Dead Man Walking,” Prejean said she knew that Jesus preached the good news to the poor, “but I didn’t know any poor people.”

Her life changed when she was asked to correspond with a convicted murderer who was on death row in Louisiana.

After serving as his spiritual adviser, she accompanied him to his execution in 1984. That led Prejean to write about her experience, and also about the perspectives of the victims’ parents and others involved.

The book was adapted as a film of the same name, as well as an opera, a play and a graphic novel.

While executions are touted as a way to give a victim’s loved ones closure, Prejean said that isn’t necessarily the case, citing families torn apart by the death penalty.

Prejean said she volunteered to accompany Elmo “Pat” Sonnier as he was executed by electrocution, “and the first thing I did afterward was to throw up.”

“This was a deliberate death. It was a legal death and I was a witness,” she said. “God gives life. God takes life. We can never put government in charge of that.”

“I’m glad in Iowa, you don’t have to deal with the death penalty, per se,” Prejean added, acknowledging that politicians often try to reinstate capital punishment.

Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965, but Republican lawmakers regularly have proposed bills to reinstate it.

That is one of the reasons Prejean continues to make appearances, such as the one at Mount Mercy, with her next stop in the Milwaukee area.

Mount Mercy President Todd Olson announced at the event that a new scholarship has been established, called the Sister Helen Prejean Peace and Justice Scholarship.

Prejean spoke for about an hour and answered several audience questions afterward.

In answer to a question regarding people who consider themselves “pro-life” who are in favor of the death penalty, Prejean said, “as Catholics, we say ‘pro-life from womb to the tomb.'”

“Pro-life means not just for the innocent life, but for the guilty,” she said, calling on everyone, in their own way, to “be a person who stands up for justice.”

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