Product Description

In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers who was sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana's Angola State Prison. In the months before Sonnier's death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. At the same time, she came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute him--men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing.

Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Confronting both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the needs of a crime-ridden society and the Christian imperative of love, Dead Man Walking is an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty, a book that is both enlightening and devastating.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44649 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-31
• Released on: 1994-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780679751311
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A Catholic nun's compelling polemic against capital punishment.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Prejean, a Catholic nun, has written a moral indictment of capital punishment. This book is the result of her visits to two death-row inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary where she serves as a spiritual advisor. Although she documents the inequalities of the judicial system that has condemned these men, her main point is that if society is to inflict this extreme punishment, it should, itself, be perfect. Needless to say, it is not. Opponents of the death penalty will find reinforcement for their cause here. The general reader, however, will probably find the book too narrow in focus, too self-righteous. Prejean writes well, but her material will not attract the wide audience she wants. An optional purchase.
- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A Catholic nun's impassioned memoir of her friendship with two death-row inmates, coupled with a plea for the abolition of capital punishment. In 1982, Prejean, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, agrees to correspond with convicted rapist and murderer Patrick Sonnier, awaiting execution in Louisiana's electric chair. Letters lead to visits, and Prejean becomes spiritual advisor to the condemned man. Her counsel takes hold, and Sonnier dies repentant--far more so than Prejean's second death-row friend, the arrogant Robert Lee Wilson, also a rapist and murderer. Both killers come off as repellently fascinating, but the real interest here is in Prejean, who begins as a frail but courageous soul, utterly out of place inside a prison, and winds up as a fierce spokeswoman for the right to life--even of those who have taken the lives of others. Her arguments against capital punishment are well known but preached with passion: The death penalty is racist, barbaric, and doesn't deter crime; innocent people get killed, etc. But her real brief lies in the grim details of execution, both in the degradation of the long weeks of waiting and in the torture of the execution itself--which involves, says Prejean, extreme physical and mental pain. The details will turn heads and stomachs: last-minute meetings with the governor, who always has his own agenda; last meals with the prisoner (Sonnier feasts on steak and apple pie, and thanks the cook); the last seconds of life, as the condemned man's face is covered by a veil (Wilson winks at Prejean as the cloth descends). To Prejean, the whole story is a web of crimes--the original murder; the execution; the moral hypocrisy of the judicial system; the suffering inflicted upon the families of both killer and victim--to which the only moral response is love inspired by Christ, who ``refused to meet hate with hate and violence with violence.'' Touching and compelling. (First printing of 30,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

An Awakening of the Conscience
When I started reading this book some years ago, I was staunchly for the death penalty. On the other side, I was staunchly opposed. Such is the power and vibrancy of Helen Prejean's writing. She takes you inside the prison walls, inside the mind of the men who commit these desperate acts, the lives they've destroyed by these acts, and the long trek out of the dark night of evil. For some, the journey ends in forgiveness, for others in a hatred and an emptiness. This book will make this sort of crime and punishment real to anyone that reads it, and whatever opinion formed afterwards will be a better-informed one.

Fascinating!
What makes this book so intense is that you know it's real. It is well written, descriptive without being overbearing and detatched enough to give you a fair perspective. The movie runs along similar lines as the book, except the method of execution, and the book delves into far more detail, as you would expect. Although an anti-death penalty activist, Helen Prejean has not written a anti-death penalty book. It's a straightforward narrative that draws the reader in and doesn't let go. She is a very talented lady and you feel a huge respect for what she does. Very compelling reading.

It changed my mind!
I had the pleasure of meeting sister Helen quite a few times, and she was an inspiring woman. I have to admit, that before meeting her I had no interest in reviewing my opinion on the death penelty, but after sitting through a few seminars of hers, i decided to read the book. What I found was an inspiring account of friendship between Helen and the inmates, and Helen and the families of the victims. This book rang with truth. It was very informative as well. After reading the book and meeting the amazing woman behind it, I began going to candlelight vigils at Angola(the prison in the book), the night of execution. I now believe completely in her cause, and reccomend this book to anyone who is at all interested in capital punishment, or even human nature.