Deschutes Public Library, The Nancy R. Chandler Visiting Scholar Program, the Associated Students of COCC, and COCC’s Multicultural Center are pleased to welcome Sister Helen Prejean for two presentations on February 24.  Sister Prejean has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on the death penalty and helping to shape the Catholic Church’s newly vigorous opposition to state executions.

The Feb. 24 talks will be presented at 1 p.m. at the Redmond Public Library and at 6:30 p.m. in the Pinckney Center on the COCC Bend Campus. The public is invited to attend. A $5 donation is suggested to help cover costs.  Sister Prejean’s books will be for sale at both talks, and she will be available for signing. Both events are part of COCC’s King, Gandhi, Chavez and Mankiller Season of Nonviolence.

In the 1980s, Sister Prejean became spiritual adviser to death row inmate Patrick Sonnier. After witnessing his execution, she wrote a book about the experience. The result was Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. It became a movie, an opera and a play for high schools and colleges.

Since 1984, Sister Helen has divided her time between educating citizens about the death penalty and counseling 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, which was released in December 2004. She is presently at work on a third book, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey.

For information, call 541-383-7257.In advance of college events, persons needing accommodation or transportation because of a physical or mobility disability, contact Joe Viola at 541-383-7775. For accommodation because of other disability such as hearing impairment, contact Anne Walker at 541-383-7743. In advance of the library event, people needing accommodations (alternative formats, seating or auxiliary aides) should contact Liz at 312-1032.