Deacon Jim Booth, director of prison ministry for the Diocese of Nashville, will join Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, the author of “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States,” and death row exoneree Kwame Ajamu for a webinar titled “Conversations of Hope: Ending the Death Penalty with Sister Helen Prejean” at 1 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, Oct. 20.
The free webinar is sponsored by the Catholic Mobilizing Network and will take place via Zoom conference. Details for logging in to the webinar will be sent by email when someone registers. To register, visit https://catholicsmobilizing.salsalabs.org/conversations-hope-sr-helen/index.html.
Sister Prejean’s book about her time as the spiritual advisor to death row inmates was the basis of the acclaimed 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking.” She has since become a well-known advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
Ajamu’s wrongful conviction in a murder/robbery case was due to false eyewitness testimony and police misconduct. He served 28 years in prison, and 39 years after his conviction, he was exonerated and charges against him were dismissed.
Ajamu serves as board chair of Witness to Innocence and he travels across the United States speaking against the death penalty.
Deacon Booth is the diocesan Director of Prison Ministry and volunteers with inmates at state prisons, including on Death Row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. He retired from Vanderbilt University, where he served as a professor in the political science and philosophy departments. One of his areas of research focused on memory, identity and justice.
