Robert Sawyer was executed by the State of Louisiana for the sexual assault and murder of Frances Arwood
According to court documents Robert Sawyer was at a home visiting where Frances Arwood was present. Sawyer would attack and beat Arwood before she was sexually assaulted. Robert would cover her body with lighter fluid and set her on fire. She would die two months later in hospital
Robert Sawyer would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
On March 5 1993 Robert Sawyer would be executed by lethal injection becoming the first in Louisiana to be executed by this method
Robert Sawyer FAQ
When Was Robert Sawyer Executed
Robert Sawyer was executed on March 5 1993
How Was Robert Sawyer Executed
Robert Sawyer was executed by lethal injection
Robert Sawyer Case
Convicted murderer Robert Wayne Sawyer was executed early Friday, the first death row inmate to die by lethal injection in Louisiana, ending a controversy over whether he was mentally retarded.
Sawyer, convicted of first-degree murder in the 1979 torture-killing of baby-sitter Frances Arwood, was pronounced dead at 12:09 CST. He became the 21st person to die in the state’s death chamber since executions resumed in 1983.
Arwood, 23, died two months after she was scalded, beaten, raped and set on fire by Sawyer and another man who pleaded guilty to taking part in the attack.
Sawyer’s attorneys filed a petition Wednesday with the Supreme Court seeking reversal of his death sentence on the grounds the trial judge had given the jury improper instructions. The Supreme Court late Thursday denied the application by a vote of 6-3. The three justices who voted to grant him a stay were Harry A. Blackman, John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter.
The Supreme Court hd rejected two earlier appeals in the case.
The State Pardons Board voted 3-2 Tuesday against recommending that Gov. Edwin Edwards commute Sawyer’s sentence to life in prison. The governor said Wednesday he would not intervene to halt the execution.
Defense attorneys and mental health advocates argued Sawyer should not be executed because he is mentally retarded and because jurors at his trial in 1980 were not informed of his mental impairment.
In rejecting Sawyer’s request for a delay, Edwards said, ‘Here the question is, is there any persuasive evidence of mental retardation? The last time the sentence was considered by the Supreme Court, the court ruled otherwise.
‘There is no new medical evidence to contradict that conclusion,’ Edwards said. ‘Under these circumstances, I will not intervene.’
Louisiana is one of 22 states that have adopted lethal injection for executions. Death sentences were carried out by electrocution in Louisiana until the state switched to lethal injection in September 1991.