EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sister Helen Prejean, the author of "Dead Man Walking," speaks to a group of death penalty protesters in front of the Old Main fountain yesterday afternoon. The gathering assembled there after a march beginning at Catalina Park on the corner of East Speedway Boulevard and North Fourth Avenue.

Cheering bystanders and supportive honks from passing cars greeted a march against the death penalty led yesterday by the author of "Dead Man Walking."

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sister Helen Prejean, who authored the book that was later made into a movie, led the march from Catalina Park to Old Main.

"You have to wake people up," Sister Prejean said. "With the civil rights, with the vote for women, people sometimes go along with whatever everyone else is saying, even if it's wrong. Now we want them to wake up and see that we're killing kids."

Sister Prejean's book, written after she witnessed the execution of an inmate, was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

Yesterday's public march and rally, which attracted nearly 100 people, was held in support of legislation to end the death penalty for juveniles in Arizona. "In the U.S. judicial system, the death penalty is overtly racist," said political science sophomore Andrew Luttio, a representative of Amnesty International. "It seems fundamentally wrong for the state to kill people for killing other people."

People came together at the event for a variety of reasons, including personal ties to prisoners on death row. "I've been visiting a man on death row for the last eight years who was only 16 at the age of his crime," said Carol Korich, who attended the rally.

Claudia Ellquist, state co-chair for the Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty, addressed problems with executing juveniles.

"Research has shown that the parts of the brain that control impulses are not fully developed until people reach their 20s," Ellquest said. "Automobile companies figured this years ago, and that's why they changed the rates for juveniles. When dollars are at stake, we figure it out really fast."

The walk was intended to bring public attention to the issue of juvenile execution.

There are currently five people in Arizona on death row who were juveniles at the time of their crime.

"We freeze-frame people into the worst act of their lives and then freeze-frame ourselves into killing them," Sister Prejean said. "Once you have the mentality of identifying people solely with their crimes, it's easy to kill the mentally challenged and kids."

The death penalty has been abolished in 110 countries, and all but six countries have stopped executing people who were juveniles at the time of their crime.

"When the rest of the world looks at us executing people who weren't even considered grown-ups, it's horrific to them," Ellquist said. "Politicians who are not willing to come up with real solutions to violence pretend that being for the death penalty proves that they're being tough on crime. But in reality, states that have the worst record for arresting and convicting dangerous criminals are the ones that use the death penalty."

Andy Silverman, UA law professor and co-chair of Sanctity of Life, People Against Execution, said he hopes the walk will bring attention to the death penalty issue in Arizona.

"All of these things bring about community awareness and support for this movement," he said.

Last year, the group helped enact a law prohibiting the execution of the mentally challenged and this year, they're working on legislation to prohibit the execution of juveniles.

Israel Carpenter, representative from Students Against the Death Penalty, who recently met Sister Prejean, thinks of her as a powerful motivator.

"She does everything for the right reasons," she said "She inspires people as she goes."