Dead man walking...

[R1Geezer]

What is the origin of this phrase?

[ChuckFickens]

I believe that it was the phrase shouted to death row prison inmates as they were walked to their execution

[David Black]

The long walk to the executioners traditionally but there is also a poem by Thomas Hardy called The Dead Man Walking.

[Quizmonster]

It is/was used only in American prisons and, I believe, it applied whenever a condemned man was being walked anywhere throughout the prison rather than just to his execution...eg to the prison hospital, to meet his lawyer and so on.
The idea was that he had priority and others should get out of the way, the grotesque implication being that he was, in effect, already 'dead'!

[R1Geezer]

Yes I understand the usage but it does have a sort of pi55 taking ring to it I just wondered if there was an interesting origin to the phrase.