Dead Man Walking |
Chapter Summaries
Timeline of Events
1977
Patrick Sonnier and his brother Eddie commit murder.
Chapter 1
May 1980
Robert Willie and his accomplice, Joe Vaccaro, murder Faith Hathaway.
Chapter 6
January 1982
Sister Helen Prejean exchanges letters with death row inmate Patrick Sonnier.
Chapter 1
September 1982
Prejean becomes Sonnier's spiritual adviser and begins visiting him in prison.
Chapter 2
March 1983
Prejean visits Eddie Sonnier, Patrick's brother, for the first time.
Chapter 2
July–November 1983
All of Patrick Sonnier's court appeals have been turned down.
Chapter 3
March 1984
Prejean and Millard Farmer meet the governor, who will not commute Sonnier's death sentence.
Chapter 3
April 1984
Prejean, Millard, and others speak before the Pardon Board, which refuses commutation for Sonnier.
Chapter 4
April 1984
Sonnier is executed in the electric chair.
Chapter 4
October 1984
Prejean becomes death row inmate Robert Willie's spiritual adviser.
Chapter 5
October 1984
Prejean visits Willie in prison for the first time.
Chapter 6
October 1984
Prejean and others march against the death penalty.
Chapter 6
November 1984
Prejean visits the Harveys and understands their rage at the loss of their daughter, Faith.
Chapter 6
November 1984
The Pardon Board denies commutation of Willie's death sentence.
Chapter 8
December 28, 1984
Willie is executed in the electric chair.
Chapter 9
August 1987
Prejean attends a victims' families support group started by the Harveys.
Chapter 11
August 1988
Prejean helps establish a victims' families support group in New Orleans.
Chapter 11
January 1991
Prejean attends Survive, a victims' families support group in Louisiana.
Chapter 11
1991
Prejean joins Lloyd LeBlanc at early morning prayer. He has forgiven Sonnier.
Chapter 11
September 1991
Howard Marsellus tells Prejean of corruption in the Pardon Board system.
Chapter 8
Chapter Summaries Chart
Chapter
Summary
Chapter 1
At the beginning of the book Sister Helen Prejean agrees to become a pen pal to a death row inmate in Louisiana's Angola...
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Chapter 2
Patrick Sonnier is excited to meet Prejean, and he puts her on the prison visitor list. He requests having her as his sp...
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Chapter 3
Prejean contacts Millard Farmer, an Atlanta attorney who helps death row prisoners. Farmer has reviewed Patrick Sonnier'...
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Chapter 4
Prejean gets permission to carry a letter from Eddie Sonnier to the governor stating that Patrick is not guilty of the m...
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Chapter 5
Prejean is deeply shaken after the execution and helps finalize the arrangements for Sonnier's funeral and burial. Angol...
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Chapter 6
To fill her in, Farmer tells Prejean about Robert Willie who, with accomplice Joe Vaccaro, went on an eight-day "rampage...
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Chapter 7
On her way home Prejean thinks about Faith Hathaway's murder and her parents' anguish. "Great as the sea is thy sorrow,"...
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Chapter 8
Millard Farmer has recruited the lawyer John Craft to represent Robert Willie at his Pardon Board hearing. Prejean is at...
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Chapter 9
An interview with the Harveys reveals they are angry with Prejean. They feel she "used them" to support her argument bef...
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Chapter 10
After Willie's execution Prejean is interviewed by the assembled press. Vernon Harvey is interviewed as well about his w...
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Chapter 11
Prejean hesitates meeting with the Harveys, who rally at every execution at Angola. Prejean wonders, "On what common gro...
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