Quotes
 Matthew Poncelet: I just wanna say I think killin` is wrong, no matter who does it, whether it`s me or y`all or your government. Sister Helen Prejean: Show me some respect, Matthew.
Matthew Poncelet: Why? `Cause you`re a nun?
Sister Helen Prejean: Because I`m a person.
Matthew: Thank you for loving me.
Sister Colleen: If Matt dies, guess who he`ll be buried next to?
Sister Helen Prejean: Who`s the last person to die?
Sister Colleen: Sister Celestine.
Sister Helen Prejean: Oh Lord.
Sister Colleen: You remember when that sweet little girl in the convent came after her wedding day to introduce her husband to us?
Sister Helen Prejean: Sister Celestine said, "I`m glad I never had to share my bed with a man."
Sister Colleen: She loved her celibacy so much.
Sister Helen Prejean: I know. She`s gonna be lying next to a man for all eternity.
Earl Delacroix: My wife filed for divorce this afternoon. We just have different ways to deal with our son`s death. Until death do us part.
Prison guard: Tell me something sister, what is nun doing in a place like this. Shouldn`t you be teaching children? Didn`t you know what this man has done? How he killed them kids?
Sister Helen Prejean: What he was involved with was evil. I don`t condone it. I just don`t see the sense of killing people to say that killing people`s wrong.
Prison guard: You know what the Bible say, `An eye for an eye`.
Sister Helen Prejean: You know what else the Bible ask for death as a punishment? For adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, trespass upon sacred grounds, profane in a sabbath and contempt to parents.
Prison guard: I ain`t gonna get no Bible quote from no nun cause I`m gonna lose.
Sister Helen Prejean: You are a son of God.
Matthew Poncelet: [in tears] Thank you. I`ve never been called a son of God before.
[laughs slightly]
Matthew Poncelet: I`ve been called a son of a you-know-what plenty of times, but I`ve never been called a son of God.
Matthew Poncelet: Hitler got things done!
Matthew Poncelet: I was just fucking chicken.
Prison guard: Do you have any last words, Poncelet?
Matthew Poncelet: Yes, I do.
[pauses]
Matthew Poncelet: Mr. Delacroix, I don`t wanna leave this world with any hate in my heart. I ask your forgiveness for what I done. It was a terrible thing I done, taking your son away from you.
Clyde Percy: [Softly to his wife] How about us?
Matthew Poncelet: Mr. and Mrs. Percy, I hope my death gives you some relief.
Trivia
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Sister Helen Prejean: I want the last face you see in this world to be the face of love, so you look at me when they do this thing. I`ll be the face of love for you.
State trooper: I never gave a ticket to a nun before. I gave a ticket to a guy from the IRS one time. Got audited the next year. I`ll tell you what, this time I`ll let this one slide, but keep your speed down, yeah?
Sister Helen Prejean: Look at you. Death is looking down your neck, and you`re playing your little male come-on games.
Matthew Poncelet: It`s quiet. Only three days left. Plenty of time to read my Bible and look for a loophole.
Sister Helen Prejean: It`s not faith, it`s work.
Clyde Percy: How can you stand next to him?
Sister Helen Prejean: Mr. Percy, I`m just trying to follow the example of Jesus, who said that a person is not as bad as his worst deed.
Clyde Percy: This is not a person. This is an animal.
Helen`s Mother: A mother`s arms are strong when her child is in danger.
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The scene where Sister Helen was pulled over is based on an incident that happened to Helen Prejean during filming. She thought it was so funny that she asked to have it put into the film.
After being told that she would be played in the film by "a famous actress from Thelma & Louise (1991)," Sister Helen Prejean was introduced to Susan Sarandon and said "Thank God, she`s Louise."
The real Sister Helen appears outside the prison during a candlelight vigil scene.
The title "Dead Man Walking" is a slang term used by prison guards when escorting death row prisoners from their cells to the execution chambers
When director Tim Robbins needed songs written for the film, he simply sent a cut of the film to several noted composers, among them Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle and asked for a song.
Because Peter Sarsgaard and Missy Yager`s brutal rape scene was filmed in the mud, every time they did a new take they had to get up, get showered, get dressed, put new makeup on and do it again. It took all night to film.
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# In reality, Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie, both inmates on whom Sean Penn`s character Matthew Poncelet is based on, were executed by the electric chair in Louisiana in 1984; by 1993, Louisiana switched that penalty to lethal injection as the most humane way to execute. Both Tim Robbins and Helen Prejean opted to use lethal injection in the film instead of the electric chair because, according to Prejean`s interview, "We don`t want to give people the moral (of the most humane death) out whereby people could say `Oh well, we used to do electrocution but that`s too barbaric so now we are humane and inject them`."
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