Dead Man Walking

After a brief trip home to her mother to recover, Prejean returns to Angola and meets Eddie, who provides her with a letter professing his own guilt in the murders. Prejean wants the warden to see it but is forbidden from carrying correspondence from prisoners. She gives it to a guard, hoping he will pass it along. The warden, Ross Maggio, has a fierce reputation, having personally killed an escaped convict who had kidnapped his mother in the escape attempt, but he had also been fair, allowing the Sonnier brothers to see one another shortly before Pat’s scheduled execution. Word comes through, and Prejean can keep the letter. On the way to the ‘death house’ where Sonnier awaits execution, Prejean thinks about the guards, many of whom she has spoken with, and how they deal with overwhelming boredom punctuated occasionally by acute danger. They are trained to view inmates with suspicion, and cannot treat them as fully human, even if they might like to, without violating protocol. Upon meeting Sonnier, Prejean tells him about his brother’s letter, but he is upset that Millard did not invite him to participate in the Pardon Board meeting, giving the victims’ families an advantage. When visiting hours expire, Prejean promises to come back, and Sonnier tells her “you’re all I’ve got” (74). Meeting with Millard, Prejean decides to bring both letters to the governor’s office. Returning to Angola, she finds Sonnier outwardly confident, insistent that “they’re not going to break me” (76). They plan a prayer service for the following day, and on that day, Prejean first meets with Maggio, who promises to follow up but for now can only go through with standard procedures, including confirming her status as a witness to the execution. As they are about to begin the prayer service, Prejean passes out from stress, exhaustion, and an empty stomach. She returns after a brief trip to the prison hospital, assuring Sonnier that she is fine, and the prayer service proceeds. Sonnier takes communion (which in Catholic theology requires a person to be in a ‘state of grace,’ at peace with God and genuinely penitent for their sins). She is struck how “here he is, fully alive, and it is hard to picture him fully dead” in a matter of hours (82).

The next day, Prejean finds Sonnier in good spirits: The local newspaper picked up his brother’s letter professing his own guilt. Still, Sonnier is furious with his brother for being the source of his trouble. He is also angry with the victims’ parents for attending his execution and vows to call them out at the moments before his death, until Prejean insists that he not let his final words be ones of hate. Waiting minute by minute for the last stroke of luck to spare him from death, they learn that the federal court struck down the last appeal and that the Supreme Court will not grant clemency. Sonnier maintains his bravado, clearing the massive plate of food he received for his last meal. At last, they find out that the governor will not grant clemency, and his Sonnier’s bravado quickly vanishes, telling Prejean, “Sister Helen, I’m going to die” (88). He notes the time of his own death in a Bible, and Millard returns, discouraged from his failed bid with the governor, to serve as witness.

As they escort Sonnier to the electric chair, the warden allows Prejean to hold his arm—the first time they have made physical contact. With his last words, Sonnier addresses one of the victim’s fathers, “Mr. LeBlanc, I don’t want to leave this world with any hatred in my heart. I want to ask your forgiveness for what me and Eddie done, but Eddie done it” (93). The guards strap a metal cap on his bald head and turn the switches. Sonnier’s execution proceeds in silence, with no noise or sign of discomfort evident to the audience, and so it requires a doctor’s investigation to pull off the mask and confirm his death. Afterward, Prejean exchanges a look with Mr. LeBlanc, who looks “shaken” (94), and Millard notes how secretive the process was and wonders what people might think if they had to witness it. As Prejean leaves the prison with her sister, she pulls over to vomit on the road.