When Helen Prejean is invited to write to a prisoner on Death Row who brutally killed two teenagers, she has little idea how much it will change her life.
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When Helen Prejean is invited to write to a prisoner on Death Row who brutally killed two teenagers, she has little idea how much it will change her life. Although she abhors his crime, she befriends one man as he faces the electric chair. Dead Man Walking is Helen Prejean's gripping true story, which formed the basis for a major motion picture event. As powerful an indictment of the death penalty as has ever been written, her book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
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First Sentence
When Chava Colon from the Prison Coalition asks me one January day in 1982 to become a pen pal to a death-row inmate, I say, Sure. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
When Chava Colon from the Prison Coalition asks me one January day in 1982 to become a pen pal to a death-row inmate, I say, Sure. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is absolutely amazing. I was a bit worried at first that it would be all about loving people because we are all gods children etc. But Helen Prejean's strength, compassion and belief that all humans deserve love no matter what (just from a human point not a god thing) is so overwhelming I could not put the book down. She finds so many faults in herself while dealing with the so called "dregs of soceity" that it really made me stop and think about myself and my own judgements about people and how quick I am at making them. It also made my belief that the death penalty is wrong even stronger.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The death penalty is an emotive subject, and people tend to have very strong views without really considering the details. Sister Prejean takes us into the world of death row, of the executions themselves and the final months and days of the condemned.
Despite Sister Prejean's anti death penalty stance, she does not preach, and also considers the families of the victims of crime. Her stance is that everyone needs, and is deserving of, love and compassion - irrespective of race, religion or background. We see her struggle with herself to give this compassion against seemingly overwhelming odds, and her carefully considered actions and opinions...
Despite Sister Prejean's anti death penalty stance, she does not preach, and also considers the families of the victims of crime. Her stance is that everyone needs, and is deserving of, love and compassion - irrespective of race, religion or background. We see her struggle with herself to give this compassion against seemingly overwhelming odds, and her carefully considered actions and opinions...
This book certainly helped to clarify my muddled thinking on the issue.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Steven R. McEvoy
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This is both a book and a movie that you need to interact with. Particularly in a day and age when there is a movement here in Canada to try to bring the death penalty back. The book is much more in depth than the movie. The book profiles the first three men that Sr. Prejean goes to the death chamber with as Spiritual Director. It profiles her mistakes as she journeys down this path for the first few times. She witnessed her first execution on April 5th, 1984 and she has been advocating against the death penalty since then.
The book does a great job of showing the disparity in how the death penalty is applied. It goes through the studies on its lack of effectiveness, and how for the most part, it is the poor and the African-American who are on death row. Even if you only read the appendices, the book will challenge you to view the death penalty in a different way.
The movie was the inspiration and starred Susan Sarandon. Sarandon was given the book while on a personal retreat at a monastery; she came home and gave the book to her partner, Tim Robbins, who directed the film. Together they approached Sr. Prejean, who went out and rented Bull Durham. She was a little leery of having them do the film, but after meeting with them went ahead with the project.
The film co-stars Sean Penn as Matthew Poncelet, a compilation of the 3 men in the book. The movie, while slow moving, is incredibly intense and draws you into the drama of waiting for a death when you know the date and time of that approaching death.
As an interesting aside, another good book is Forgiving the Dead Man Walking by Debbie Morris, who was one of the victims of Robert Lee Willie from the book. Debbie always said if they ever made a movie, Penn would have to play Willie because they looked so much alike.
So read the book and watch the movie, and if you want yet another challenging book, give Forgiving the Dead Man Walking a read also.
The book does a great job of showing the disparity in how the death penalty is applied. It goes through the studies on its lack of effectiveness, and how for the most part, it is the poor and the African-American who are on death row. Even if you only read the appendices, the book will challenge you to view the death penalty in a different way.
The movie was the inspiration and starred Susan Sarandon. Sarandon was given the book while on a personal retreat at a monastery; she came home and gave the book to her partner, Tim Robbins, who directed the film. Together they approached Sr. Prejean, who went out and rented Bull Durham. She was a little leery of having them do the film, but after meeting with them went ahead with the project.
The film co-stars Sean Penn as Matthew Poncelet, a compilation of the 3 men in the book. The movie, while slow moving, is incredibly intense and draws you into the drama of waiting for a death when you know the date and time of that approaching death.
As an interesting aside, another good book is Forgiving the Dead Man Walking by Debbie Morris, who was one of the victims of Robert Lee Willie from the book. Debbie always said if they ever made a movie, Penn would have to play Willie because they looked so much alike.
So read the book and watch the movie, and if you want yet another challenging book, give Forgiving the Dead Man Walking a read also.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
I read this book after watching the film and found the book contained a depth of information not even scratched by the film. Read more
Published 3 months ago by reader1
5.0 out of 5 stars
A personal history of an American nun
Helen Prejean was a nun who spent much of her working life within the US prison system and especially on Death Row. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Claptonian
4.0 out of 5 stars
Looking forward to finishing it!
SO far this book has been really interesting. I'm not sure quite how someone can befried a killer, so it will be interesting to find out!
Published 20 months ago by Mistrey
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