Sister Helen Prejean Timeline and Summary

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• Helen Prejean is born in Baton Rouge in 1939 to a loving Catholic family.
• Prejean joins the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, an order of nuns.
• Around 1980, the members of the sisterhood decide to commit themselves more directly to social activism. Prejean is doubtful at first, but a speech by one member of the sisterhood converts her.
• Prejean works in a housing project called St. Thomas in New Orleans and teaches high-school dropouts at Hope House.
• In 1982, Prejean is asked to be a pen pal to Patrick Sonnier, a death row inmate convicted for murder and rape.
• Prejean becomes Sonnier's spiritual advisor and works to get his sentence converted. Her efforts at the latter fail, and he is executed in April, 1984.
• With the advice of anti-death row activists, including lawyer Millard Farmer, Prejean decides to work against the death penalty—but not to be a spiritual advisor anymore.
• Prejean changes her mind when Farmer asks her to work with Robert Lee Willie, another convicted murderer and rapist.
• Prejean agrees. This time, because Sonnier's victims' families were angry that she did not reach out to them when she was working with Sonnier, she contacts the parents of Robert's victim.
• Prejean becomes close friends with Vernon and Elizabeth Harvey, whose daughter was murdered by Robert.
• Prejean continues to work to get Robert's sentence converted. She fails, and he is executed in December 1984.
• Prejean continues to work against the death penalty; through the Harveys, she also becomes involved in efforts to help victims of violent crimes and their families.
• Prejean's memoir about her experiences is published in 1993.