DEAD MAN WALKING

'''Dead Man Walking''' is a work of non-fiction by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and one of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille.

Contents

Background

Name

Adaptations

Film

Opera

Stage version of the book/film

Reference

External links

Background

She has become a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. Her campaign began in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1981, through a correspondence she maintained with two convicted murderers.
The first was Elmo Patrick Sonnier, who was sentenced to death by electrocution. She visited Sonnier in prison and agreed to be his spiritual advisor in the months leading up to his death.
The second was Robert Lee Willie, for whom she once again served as spiritual advisor.
The experience gave Prejean greater insight into the process involved in executions and she began speaking out against capital punishment. At the same time, she also founded Survive, an organization devoted to providing counselling to the families of victims of violence.

Name

The title comes from the traditional call in America of "Dead man walking, dead man walking here!" from a prison guard as a condemned prisoner is led onto Death Row; the phrase may have originally come from the 1909 poem by Thomas Hardy titled ''The Dead Man Walking''.

Adaptations

Film

Main articles: Dead Man Walking (film)

In 1995, a film based on the book was made, starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

Opera

It was also made into an opera with the same name, composed by Jake Heggie from a libretto by Terrence McNally which premiered at the San Francisco Opera in October 2000. The international premiere of the opera was in January 2006, at the Calgary Opera in Calgary, Canada.

Stage version of the book/film

Reference

★ Prejean, Helen (1993). ''Dead Man Walking''. Random House. ISBN 0-679-75131-9 (paperback)

External links

★ Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project

★ Death Penalty Discourse Center

★ Interview with Alan Moroney

★ Sister Helen Prejean: The Real Woman Behind ''Dead Man Walking'' (from AmericanCatholic.org, April 1996)