Todd Peppers won't tell his criminal justice students at Roanoke College where he stands on capital punishment, but he knows that Sister Helen Prejean will when she speaks at the campus on Wednesday.

That's why Peppers led the school's invitation to Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and author of "Dead Man Walking."

The 1993 bestselling book about her role as a spiritual adviser to a convicted murderer became a movie starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

"I want my students to form their own opinions about capital punishment. I absolutely refuse to take a stand on it in my classes. They'll get some strong opinions from Sister Prejean," Peppers said.

Prejean is scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Colket Center's Wortmann Ballroom. Admission is free and tickets aren't necessary. The ballroom seats about 200.

Prejean, 68, has become a high-profile advocate of abolishing the death penalty. She's now working for Amnesty International, most recently in India, and made national news when she appeared last year to lobby legislators in New Jersey to become the first state since 1976 to abolish the death penalty. New Jersey repealed its death penalty law in December.

Prejean, who has witnessed several executions, is ministering to several inmates on death rows around the nation. At least one of those is in Louisiana, where she lives.

She doesn't ask for fees for speaking appearances such as the one at Roanoke College. Peppers said he and others on campus have raised money to pay her travel and hotel expenses.

"Besides her public appearance, she's also going to talk to about 20 of my students," Peppers said.

Teresa Gereaux, spokeswoman for Roanoke College, said Prejean spoke there soon after the movie version of "Dead Man Walking" made its theater rounds in 1996. That time she appeared at Bast Center, the school's basketball gym, which holds more than 1,000.

"There was a big crowd then. She's very popular. We expect a good turnout this time, too," Gereaux said.