Recently as I browsed the stacks at the Waco Library, I came across the book Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean. Years ago I saw the movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, based on this book. Curiosity got the best of me – I checked it out.
It’s a deeply moving account of Sister Helen’s experiences as she becomes spiritual advisor to two convicted murderers on death-row. She is repulsed by their crimes but comes to establish close relationships with each of them. From this she became a life-long advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
The first inmate she befriends is Patrick Sonnier, who, along with his brother, had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering two teenagers.
We get a sense of her spiritual struggle early on as she writes,
“I cannot accept that the state now plans to kill Patrick Sonnier in cold blood. But the thought of the young victims haunts me. Why do I feel guilty when I think of them? Why do I feel as if I have murdered someone myself?
“Then it comes to me. The victims are dead and the killer is alive and I am befriending the killer.
“Have I betrayed his victims? Do I have to take sides?”
As she recounts the weeks and days leading up to Sonnier’s execution, we come to know him and the ebb and flow of the terror he experiences as his death-date approaches.
We also learn a little about the system surrounding capital punishment and all the people involved: the judges, the members of the pardon board, the governor, the head of the Department of Corrections, the Warden, the warden’s secretary, the Associate Warden, the captain of the death house in the prison complex, the chaplain on the prison payroll, the electrician who wires the chair, the chef who prepares the last meal, the numerous guards – who shave his head, who change his clothes, who cover the windows so other prisoners won’t see the lights dim when the switch is pulled, the strap-down team.
All of these have a role to play, and their own moral struggles as they carry out the law’s demands.
Sister Helen’s concerns are not just with the condemned. She also comes to care for the families of the murder victims, and to understand their grief and the rage they often feel.
So she sought ways to ease the suffering of the victims’ families – whether or not they saw eye-to-eye on capital punishment.
Throughout the book, Sister Helen makes the case for the abolition of the death penalty, presenting an eye-witness account that is so engrossing at times it can be hard to put down. For sure it deals with difficult issues. And she doesn’t shy away from disturbing, even gut-wrenching descriptions.
I’ll close with another quote from Sister Helen. She writes:
“If I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by the government – which can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
Dead Man Walking is available at the Waco McLennan County Library.
