Robert Lee Willie was a convict on Death Row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

 at Louisiana State Penitentiary

Louisiana State Penitentiary

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...

. Sister Helen Prejean

Helen Prejean

Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., is a Roman Catholic religious sister, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, who has become a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.-Death row ministry:...

, one of the sisters of St Joseph of Medailles, served as his spiritual adviser. She based her book Dead Man Walking on him and Elmo Patrick Sonnier

Elmo Patrick Sonnier

Elmo Patrick Sonnier was a convicted murderer and rapist who was executed by electrocution at Angola in Louisiana on April 5, 1984...

. The two convicts also inspired the Matthew Poncelet character, played by Sean Penn

Sean Penn

Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...

, in the film Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking (film)

Dead Man Walking is a 1995 American drama film directed by Tim Robbins, who adapted the screenplay from the non-fiction book of the same name...

.

Willie was executed in the electric chair

Electric chair

Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...

 for the May 28, 1980 kidnap, rape, and murder of 18 year old Faith Hathaway in Mandeville, Louisiana

Mandeville, Louisiana

Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...

.

See also

• Capital punishment in Louisiana
• Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States
  Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...