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Patrick Sonnier Chapter Summaries

889 Words4 Pages

By: Prejean Helen Prejean

This essay is going to be talking about Patrick Sonnier and Robert Willie. Patrick Sonnier is a man convicted of killing a teenage couple. Sonnier was sentenced to death by the electric chair. This book gave me a different perspective on how criminals would be charged with the death penalty. It also helped me understand that if you have a someone by your side who won’t gave on you for they see who you really are. Sister Helen Prejean was the type to never give on someone. If she took an interest in you, no matter what you did you were forgiven by her and she would help you out with whatever you needed help with.

Within reading the first couple of pages I learned that Louisiana has very diverse communities …show more content…

The crimes were murder, rape, and abduction. The man who committed was Elmo Patrick Sonnier. He raped and killed Loretta Ann Bourque,18. He also killed David LeBlanc, 17. He told them he was a cop and they trespassing on private property. The handcuffed them, put them in the back seat, and told them He was going to take them to the owners house to ask if he wanted press charges. He lied to them, instead take them to a n oil field in Iberia Parish. David was handcuffed to a tree, while Sonnier took Loretta and raped her. They got the death sentence because their victims were white, this has reason later in the paper. Sonnier wasn’t working alone, his brother was with him. Sonnier and his brother told the couple if Loretta were to have sex with Eddie (the younger brother) they would them go unharmed. Loretta told them she would. But Patrick feared they would tell the cops and he didn’t want to go back to Angola. This all happened November 4, 1977. He killed them a 22-caliber rifle. They had guns because they were out there hunting rabbits. They buried the guns. And December 5, 1977 Sonnier confused to the crimes and was sentenced to to the death penalty by the electric chair.

How Sister Helen Prejean tries to help is hired a death row attorney from Atlanta. Millard Farmer explains to her who gets to live and who gets to die. It’s all based off of race and what class you are in. The Pardon Board votes in favor of execution.

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