New graphic novel brings Sister Helen Prejean’s story to next generation of anti-death penalty activists

Dead Man Walking has been a book, a movie, a play, an opera and now a graphic novel. All that is left, says Helen Prejean, C.S.J., the intrepid activist who almost singlehandedly changed the focus of  Catholic teaching on the death penalty, is for it to become a ballet (she has been known to suggest “Dead Man Kicking” as the title).

Having so many adaptations runs a risk of redundancy, but Dead Man Walking has proven compelling enough to thrive across its many mediums. The most recent version, a graphic novel illustrated by Catherine Anyango Grünewald and scripted by Rose Vines, is no exception. Through six years of labor, Grünewald and Vines have produced a work that captures the heart-wrenching emotion of Sister Prejean’s testimony and doubles as an accessible education on the history and legality of the death penalty in the United States. In its graphic format, Dead Man Walking becomes a sort of introductory textbook on capital punishment.

First published in 1993, Dead Man Walking is a first-person account of Sister Prejean’s experience serving as spiritual director to two inmates on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Sister Prejean briefly narrates her middle-class upbringing in Baton Rouge, La., and her vocation to social justice activism before focusing on her interactions with the inmates, advocates, victims’ family members and corrections staff closest to the death penalty. She humanizes those on death row while taking great care not to minimize the horror of their crimes and the toll on the victims’ families, insisting on the dignity of all of us, even those who have committed acts many would consider irredeemable.

These narrative beats are present in the graphic edition. Sister Prejean begins a correspondence with Elmo Patrick Sonnier, a death row inmate convicted of the rape and murder of Loretta Ann Bourque, 18, and the murder of David LeBlanc, 17, a couple that he abducted with his brother following a high school football game in 1977. Working with Sonnier as his spiritual advisor leads Sister Prejean to become involved in his commutation case, for which she meets other advocates, like attorney Millard Farmer, who educate Sister Prejean—and by proxy, the reader—on the unequal, racialized enforcement of capital sentences.

She also comes to know the parents of Sonnier’s victims. Lloyd LeBlanc’s ultimate forgiveness of his son’s killer is one of the more poignant moments in this incredibly moving story. His recounting of the words of the “Our Father” at the murder site when he had to identify the body of his son ends Sister Prejean’s story: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us.”

Sister Prejean also discusses her experience with a second death row inmate, Robert Lee Willie, a serial killer and member of the Aryan Brotherhood who confessed to six murders and was put to death for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Faith Hathaway. Willie is a deplorable inmate, glorifying Hitler and only accepting varying degrees of responsibility for his brutal crimes. But Sister Prejean insists upon his essential humanity regardless, guiding him toward a sliver of redemption in coming to terms with his own death and the pain he has caused.

Faith Hathaway’s father, Vernon, is a sort of foil to Lloyd LeBlanc, as he is consumed by grief in the wake of his daughter’s murder, rejoicing in the execution of Willie and becoming a vocal advocate for the death penalty and victims’ rights. Sister Prejean is careful not to demonize him, however, as she takes great care to explain his anger and how her interactions with him and his wife Elizabeth led her to found Survive, a victims’ rights organization, alongside her anti-death penalty activism.

These details are not new. What is new is that they are depicted in Grünewald’s muted, at times haunting, style that heightens Dead Man Walking’s emotional impact. The artist, who previously adapted Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness into a graphic novel, uses color sparingly in a manner that functions almost as a legend, highlighting key moments and themes for readers.

Mostly grayscale illustrations are punctuated with color for dramatic effect. For example, a black-and-white image showing the face-down bodies of Loretta Ann Borque and David LeBlanc in the field where they were murdered contains red blood splatters that sharply contrast with the rest of the image. Red blood droplets form the dew on black grass.

Grünewald’s art also draws powerful, unspoken connections. Later on, when Sister Prejean is reflecting on the unimaginable horror felt by the victims’ parents, a page shows Borque lying in the field and facing the reader. The following page features her father positioned in the same way, lying awake in bed, unable to sleep in the wake of his daughter’s death. His depiction is framed by a quote from the Book of Jeremiah (31:15) about an inconsolable mourning parent.

This version of Dead Man Walking is peppered with many such creative choices. The graphic edition also enables moments of visual learning. When Farmer explains the legal appeals process to Sister Prejean on a car ride to Angola, the notorious Louisiana prison, his explanation is translated into a graphic, with a car driving through a series of labeled stops and small paragraphs explaining what happens at each level of the criminal judicial process, from trial court to state and federal appeals.

The book embraces a multimedia approach, with real newspaper clippings, letters and photographs mixed with original illustrations in a collage style that provides primary sources for the reader to dive deeper into the history of the death penalty. Explanations of former court cases feature illustrations of the justices who rendered them along with direct quotes from the majority and dissenting opinions. The education is not exhaustive, but it provides the reader with a fair amount of information on the criminal system in a digestible format.

Grünewald also uses color to highlight selections from Albert Camus—the 20th-century French philosopher who wrote another seminal work against the death penalty, the extended essay “Reflections on the Guillotine”—throughout the work. Vines quotes Camus, who is identifiable by a distinctive blue outline, to bolster the moral theory that underlies Sister Prejean’s humanizing storytelling.

Coming over 30 years after the original Dead Man Walking, this graphic edition also contains updated information on the state of the death penalty in the United States today. For example, it mentions Pope Francis’ decision to revise the Catechism of the Catholic Church to declare that capital punishment is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” in 2018.

Many states have also abolished the death penalty since the original publication of Dead Man Walking, and national support for the death penalty has dropped from 80 percent in 1994 to 52 percent in 2025, according to Gallup polling, with only 36 percent supporting death when offered a choice between capital punishment and life without parole for murder.

Still, Sister Prejean’s harrowing tale remains jarringly relevant. On day one in office, the second Trump administration reversed the Biden-era moratorium on federal executions by executive order; further, it demanded that federal prosecutors pursue the death penalty for all death-eligible crimes and every capital crime committed by an undocumented person or involving the murder of a law enforcement officer, regardless of mitigating factors.
As the dignity of life again comes under attack, the graphic edition of Dead Man Walking holds promise to compel the next generation of anti-death-penalty advocates to action.

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