- So, what horrible thing has Robert Lee Willie done, you wonder?
- Robert and a man named Joseph Vaccaro killed Faith Hathaway, an 18-year-old.
- The stepfather of the girl is Vernon Harvey, who is an active proponent of the death penalty and has been quoted talking about how he wants to see Robert die.
- Prejean feels she has to contact Harvey, though, after she messed up by not reaching out to the Bourques and LeBlancs.
- Millard says Robert doesn't have a lot of time before he's executed, so she writes to him immediately. She sort of hopes he won't want a spiritual advisor.
- Then the book would be over, though, so you know that doesn't happen.
- Prejean describes the crime. Not only did Robert and Vaccaro kill and rape Faith, but they also kidnapped another couple, raped the girl, and paralyzed the boy.
- Robert sounds thoroughly unpleasant even beyond the horrific crimes he committed: he has a history of drug abuse, and he snarked at the judge during his trial.
- Robert's also been involved in other deaths: he killed someone over drugs, and a deputy died in a robbery he was involved in.
- Vaccaro got life in prison, but Willie was sentenced to death—basically because Vaccaro had a better lawyer.
- Prejean is horrified, but Mallard says that there's a child inside Robert. It's not clear why that's supposed to be comforting, exactly, but we'll try to keep an open mind, we guess.
- Prejean writes to Robert. She's a lot less enthusiastic and friendly than she had been with Pat.
- Robert writes back saying yes, he'd like Prejean to be his advisor. He's not super enthusiastic, either.
- Bill Quigley tells Prejean the warden may oppose her as spiritual advisor because the Catholic priest has blackballed her. Well, well.
- The priest dude is upset that Prejean got along with Pat, basically.
- Prejean visits Warden Blackburn. She asks him how he can be a good Christian and preside over Death Row.
- Blackburn basically says he just doesn't worry about it that much.
- Prejean pauses to talk a bit about how Christians often support capital punishment and have done a lot of awful violent things despite the nonviolent example of Jesus.
- Blackburn asks about Prejean's fainting spell, and she explains that she hadn't been allowed to eat because of prison security.
- Blackburn seems convinced, and Prejean gets to be Robert's advisor.
- Prejean is moving into a house with two other nuns, away from St. Thomas, since she's not really working with the residents there as much anymore.
- By the way, Prejean's still communicating with Eddie Sonnier, who calls her "Sis" now.
- So, it's time for the first meeting with Robert Lee Willie.
- It turns out that Robert's a small, delicate man.
- Robert asks Prejean if she doesn't wish she could get married.
- Prejean says she always wanted to spread her love further, but she has close intimate friends.
- Robert says he misses women. (He's not gross about it though; he doesn't hit on her. That happens in the film, because Hollywood likes that sort of thing, but it didn't happen in reality.)
- And then Prejean leaves. Robert doesn't talk about his crime or show much remorse.
- Pat was much more charismatic; Robert is harder to like.
- Anyway, it's the end of October now, and Prejean and other activists march on Baton Rouge to try to raise awareness about the death penalty.
- Prejean talks to the media and makes anti-death penalty arguments; the death penalty is very expensive to administer, she says, and it's administered randomly and capriciously.
- Prejean says everyone is complicit in killing done by the government.
- Prejean and company walk for a long time. When they get to Baton Rouge, there's a counter-demonstration.
- Vernon Harvey is one of the people in the counter-demonstration; he asks to talk to Prejean.
- Prejean goes to Harvey, and he says he's worried about her safety working with Death Row inmates.
- Prejean and Harvey argue in a friendly way, and she says she'll call him to go visit.
- Soon after, she visits Vernon and meets Elizabeth, his wife.
- The Harveys tell Prejean about Faith's death. Faith had been about to go into the army.
- The last time they saw her, she was going to her waitressing job. She was late the next morning, when she was supposed to meet the recruiting sergeant.
- Vernon and Elizabeth finally went to the police, and eventually someone found Faith's body.
- Vernon cries as he talks about it; Prejean cries, too.
- The police didn't want the Harveys to come in and identify Faith, because it would have been too traumatic, so Elizabeth got her brother the dentist to check the dental records.
- The police don't give the family much say in what they do or don't do. Victims don't seem to be a very high priority.
- Prejean meets little Elizabeth, Vernon and Elizabeth's daughter.
- We get a description of the murder: Vaccaro and Robert offered Faith a ride home, took her to a remote location and raped and murdered her. One of them held her hands while the other stabbed her to death.
- Vernon is angry that Vaccaro got a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
- Vernon thinks that when the murderers are dead, he will feel some closure and won't be reliving the murder over and over.
- Vernon says that Robert Lee Willie saw him in the hall and was cocky and defiant in front of him.
- The Harveys feel that the only way to keep Robert from killing again is to electrocute him.
- Prejean tells them she's Robert's spiritual advisor; Vernon feels strongly that Robert needs all the spiritual advice he can get.
- Vernon says he almost killed Robert a couple of times; once, in court, he could have pulled a gun from a sheriff… but he decided not to, for fear he'd hurt other people.
- Vernon also ended up following a police car with Robert in it and thought about running them off the road—but again was worried he'd hurt other people.
- Vernon says his congressman helped make sure Robert would face capital punishment. Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States, even called him.
- Prejean has to go. Vernon says they're like people rooting for different baseball teams.
- Prejean writes that later, at the Pardon Board hearing for Robert Willie, the Harveys become upset at her. They thought she had agreed that Robert should be put to death. Her description here makes it seem more dramatic than it was, though; she actually remains friends with the Harveys afterward.