D. D. Devinci

I am not going to review this book as a piece of literature; I simply cannot bring myself to do that. It is an intense scream of pain.

I would urge everyone to read this book simply to get some feeling how murder can destroy the survivors. I discussed this book with a friend who is a parole officer, chiefly doing presentencing investigations. She has to talk with everyone involved on both sides of the case (comforting the mothers of victim and perpetrator alike, a specialty). As such, I think she has a better view of the entire situation than most.

I wondered if the Bourques' were extreme in their reaction, but she tells me that it is not unusual for a family never to be able to get over such a tragedy. Losing a child or sibling to murder is especially difficult. When their torment and death were a passing amusement for the perpetrator, it can be inconceivable. I think that we also need to realize what the family goes through, in addition to losing a member.

The legal process itself makes it very difficult for the victims to put the matter behind them. They have to relive and remember it through trials, mistrials, retrials, appeals and parole hearings. In addition, this family was badly hurt by Helen Prejean's politicking. I am an atheist; I don't think I understood until I read this what a blow it was to have their child's murderer, Patrick Sonnier, given a burial in what is considered to be a particularly honored place, presided over by a bishop. I could see this as a gesture of compassion if Prejean's sisterhood were in the habit of burying indigents, and the bishop was in the habit of presiding over their funerals, or if they had shown similar concern for Loretta Bourque and David LeBlanc, but this is obviously not the case. Clearly Sonnier was honored for being an executed murderer.

Then there was a book, then there was a movie. It does not seem to have occurred to Prejean or her sisters to consider families' feelings before telling their story. I can believe that Prejean would prefer that they were not hurt, but I think she lies in saying that hurting them is the last thing she wants to do: that would be not using her experiences for her campaign.

I don't entirely blame Prejean for their hurt; they needed help long before she became involved with Sonnier. Their feelings of abandonment by their church is certainly nothing to encourage me to return to Christianity. It is particularly ironic when people who sympathize with the difficult childhood of the perpetrator none the less expect the victims to just "get over it."

The author also quotes a number of documents contradicting Prejean version of events. Even when I had only read Prejean's book, I was unconvinced by her belief that Patrick Sonnier was a hero who willingly laid down his life for his brother. How could she be so sure that the Sonniers were lying when they both said that Patrick was the triggerman, and telling the truth when they later claimed that Eddie was? Especially since the original version had reduced Eddie's responsibility and punishment, and the second version presumably would have reduced Patrick's; one of them has to be a lie. When feelings run so high, one must be careful about taking things at face value, but putting together what Prejean said about Willie in her book, with the interviews that they both gave, with Debbie Morris's account of what Prejean told her, with the testimony of other witnesses, I suspect that she was lying through her teeth when she described him as remorseful.

This is not an elegantly written book , but it accomplishes its purpose in conveying the agony of this family. For more on the Dead Man Walking controversies, I also advise reading Debbie Morris' Forgiving the Dead Man Walking: Only One Woman Can Tell the Entire Story, by one of Willie and Vaccaro's surviving victims, as well as Victims of Dead Man Walking (also published as Loss of Faith: The Dead Man Walking's Forgotten Victims) by Michael Varnado, the detective who found Faith Hathaway's body. Readers concerned about valuing the murderer over the victims may also be interested in reading The Victim's Song by Alice Kaminsky; The Yale Murder by Peter Meyer; and The Killing of Bonnie Garland: A Question of Justice by Willard Gaylin.… (mehr)