Activist Sister Helen Prejean has counseled popes, governors on death penalty: ‘She’s not a scold; she appeals to your reason’

Death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean shakes hands with former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn at a speech Friday to the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago at University Club of Chicago. Quinn, who is Catholic and a lawyer, in 2011 signed legislation that abolished the death penalty in Illinois. Prejean counseled late former Gov. George Ryan ahead of Ryan’s 2003 decision to commute the sentences of 167 death row inmates across the state. (Pat Nabong | Chicago Sun-Times)

In the spring of 2011, a bill that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois sat on the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn, next to a ringing phone, piles of letters and often, advocates for or against capital punishment.

More than a decade later, Quinn can recall phone calls from the families of murder victims, prosecutors and at least three prominent fellow Catholics: actor Martin Sheen, Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sister Helen Prejean. Prejean visited his office with a plea to end executions in Illinois.