Dead Man Walking (film) the same name, premiering in San Francisco. Yvonne Koslovsky-Golan, author of "The Death Penalty in American Cinema: Criminality and Retribution in Hollywood Film", stated that even though public debate on the death penalty increased for a period after the release of "Dead Man Walking", the film did not result in "real political or legal change" but that it did encourage additional academic study on the death penalty. Dead Man Walking (film) Dead Man Walking is a 1995 American crime drama film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, and co-produced and directed by Tim Robbins, who adapted the screenplay from the
Dead Man Walking (book) would call out, "Dead man walking! Dead man walking here!" The origin of the phrase is debated. It may have been to warn other staff or prisoners, to let them know they should be on their guard since a death row prisoner has nothing to lose and could be violent. It may also have been a kind of honorific declamation, to let other prisoners know that they should move out of the way - death row prisoners being seen as an elite within the prison system. Alternatively, the call may have been a stigma attached to the condemned man, to