Sister Helen Prejean, 87, returns to DePaul University to honor Illinois’ death penalty abolition and inspire a new generation of activists.
Sister Helen Prejean, the nun who has spent four decades fighting the death penalty, marked her 87th birthday by returning to DePaul University for a celebration of death penalty abolition.
A Milestone for Illinois
The April event commemorated the 15th anniversary of the state’s abolition of capital punishment.. Former Governor Pat Quinn. who signed the abolition bill and later commuted the remaining death‑row sentences. addressed the crowd alongside a recorded message from Pope Leo XIV. a Chicago‑born pontiff whose parents were DePaul alumni.. The gathering also featured Renaldo Hudson, a former death‑row inmate who spent 13 years behind bars before receiving clemency in 2020.
Universities as Catalysts for Justice
DePaul’s Dialogue Collaborative deliberately mixes students. faculty. administrators and advocates at the same table. even seating a first‑year student next to the university president.. In the classroom, the school runs a course inside Cook County Jail, pairing incarcerated learners with traditional peers.. Such experiential learning forces students to confront the humanity of people on the margins. a lesson Sister Prejean says reshapes both sides of the conversation.
Illinois’ journey toward abolition began with a moratorium declared by Republican Governor George Ryan in 2000. followed by a sweeping commutation of all death‑row inmates.. Governor Quinn built on that foundation. signing the 2008 legislation that officially ended the death penalty in the state and later pardoning the final fifteen prisoners who remained on the list.. The state’s stance stands in stark contrast to the federal government’s recent decision to expand the use of the federal death penalty. a move announced the same day as the DePaul event.
Renaldo Hudson’s presence underscored the personal impact of policy change.. After 37 years of incarceration. including over a decade on death row. Hudson walked out of prison in 2020 when Governor JB Pritzker granted him clemency.. At DePaul, he greeted Sister Prejean warmly, recalling their years of shared advocacy.. “These moments put theory into practice. ” he told the audience. urging today’s students to remember that the decisions they make tomorrow will affect real lives.
The significance of such campus‑wide engagement extends beyond Illinois.. Across the nation. universities are embedding criminal‑justice modules into curricula. inviting incarcerated speakers. and hosting joint classes with correctional facilities.. This trend reflects a broader shift toward experiential pedagogy that challenges the abstract nature of legal debates and grounds them in lived experience.
Looking ahead, activists hope that the DePaul model will influence legislative conversations at the state and federal levels.. As the Justice Department expands capital‑punishment prosecutions. the stories of former death‑row inmates and the moral arguments presented by figures like Sister Prejean could sway public opinion and. eventually. policy.. The hope. as Prejean puts it. is to make “hope a verb”—a call to action that resonates with the next generation of leaders.
Sister Prejean’s 1993 memoir *Dead Man Walking*—now also a graphic novel—continues to reach young readers. illustrating how storytelling can humanize a debate often reduced to statistics.. Her return to DePaul reaffirms that universities remain vital arenas where ideas meet reality. and where the fight for justice can be both taught and lived.