Most juries feel pressured to give the death penalty so they do not show disrespect to the victim, she said.
Dead Man Walking tells the story of Prejean's relationship as a spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers sentenced to die in Louisiana's Angola State Prison.
The book spent 31 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and won a Pulitzer Prize nomination before it was made into a popular movie in 1995. Susan Sarandon, who played Prejean in the movie, won an Oscar for the role.
Since 1998, Prejean has led a petition drive called "Moratorium 2000," an effort to repeal the death penalty in the U.S. and across the world. She has collected almost two million signatures so far.
Prejean said she plans to present the signatures to Secretary-General Kofi Annan at United Nations headquarters in New York Dec. 10.
Yesterday, Prejean outlined her personal journey as a nun in a New Orleans housing project, and then as the spiritual advisor to Sonnier.
Her experiences working in the St. Thomas housing complex starting in 1981 helped her realize how privileged her life had been, she said.
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