Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States is a memoir originally published in 1993 by Sister Helen Prejean. In the book, Prejean, a Catholic nun with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille (now the Congregation of Saint Joseph), describes her ministry to death-row inmates Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie in Louisiana in the early 1980s. Her experience with Sonnier, who was ultimately put to death in 1984, turned her strongly against capital punishment and prompted what has since been a lifetime of activism and ministry to inmates, their families, and the families of victims. The book has had a major influence on the debate over capital punishment in the United States, spending 31 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and winning widespread critical praise. In 1995, Tim Robbins adapted the book into a film starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean and Sean Penn as a fictionalized combination of Sonnier and Willie named Matthew Poncelet. The film was both a commercial and critical success, most notably earning Sarandon an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2000, it debuted as an opera in San Francisco and has been performed in many cities in the United States and around the world ever since.