Elmo Patrick Sonnier illness, at Louisiana State Prison . He is buried in the prison cemetery. Sister Helen Prejean published a book, "Dead Man Walking" (1993), about her relationship with Elmo Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie, another inmate on Death Row whom she counseled. The book was adapted as a 1995 film of the same name directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Prejean and Sean Penn as Matthew Poncelett, an amalgam of Sonnier and Willie. Her book was also adapted as an opera of the same name, first produced in 2000 by the San Francisco Opera. Elmo Patrick Sonnier
Dalton Prejean Dalton Prejean Dalton Prejean (December 10, 1959 – May 18, 1990) was an American murderer. He was tried, convicted, and executed by the electric chair in Louisiana for the murder of Louisiana State Police Trooper Donald Cleveland. The case received international attention because the defendant was a black man convicted by an all-white jury; had brain damage and tested just above mental retardation; and was age 17 at the time of the crime. Prejean was the second of four children. When he was two weeks old his parents sent him from their home in Lafayette to live with his aunt