The Letter to Elmo Patrick Sonia

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In 1978 a 28 year old man named Elmo Patrick Sonia was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a teenage girl. His brother Eddie James Sonia was ultimately given a life sentence for his role in the murders. Sister Helen Prejean was asked to write Patrick Sonia a letter. Two years later when he's executed the only one who can stay in the death house with him is the nun.

In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean was invited to write a letter to a man on death row in Louisiana’s Angola State Prison named Elmo Patrick Sonnier. She told us, “I thought that all I was going to be doing was writing letters. And lo and behold, two years later, I am in that execution chamber.” She’s now 81, and has been present at the executions of six men.

Sister Helen’s book, Dead Man Walking, is about her time as a spiritual advisor to Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie. It was adapted into a movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

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