Short description
In 1982, a Roman Catholic nun became the spiritual advisor to a condemned murderer who was soon executed. Powerfully and persuasively, with a compassion that embraces not only the terrified killer but the families of his victims and the men who executed him, Prejean narrates Patrick Sonnier's walk to the electric chair.
Review
Destined to become the most influential anti-capital punishment statement since Albert Camus wrote' Reflections on the Guillotine' in 1957...This unblinking book about the deliberate killing of human beings refuses to turn a blind eye to the sins of the murderers--be they prisoners or prison officials. The author, Sister Helen Prejean, is a Roman Catholic nun who has lived and worked with poor black families in New Orleans. Walking explores her personal and spiritual evolution into both a death penalty opponent and victims advocate, an evolution that begins when she serves as the spiritual advisor to two condemned men. --Washington Post Book World
This arresting account should do for the debate over capital punishment what the film footage from Selma and Birmingham accomplished for the civil rights movement: turn abstractions into flesh and blood. Tough, fair, bravely alive--you will not come away from this book unshaken. --Bill McKibben