Willie Celestine was executed by the State of Louisiana for the sexual assault and murder of an elderly woman
According to court documents Willie Celestine would break into the home of eighty one year old Marcelianne Richard who would be sexually assaulted and murdered
Willie Celestine would also be convicted of two more sexual assaults of elderly women in the same neighborhood
Willie Celestine would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Willie Celestine would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 20 1987
Willie Celestine FAQ
When was Willie Celestine executed
Willie Celestine was executed on July 20 1987
How was Willie Celestine executed
Willie Celestine was executed by way of the electric chair
Willie Celestine Case
Willie Lawrence Celestine was executed in Louisiana’s electric chair early Monday after asking forgiveness from the family of the 81-year-old woman he beat, raped and strangled six years ago.
Celestine, 30, was put to death at Louisiana State Penitentiary for the brutal 1981 murder of Marceliane Richard of Lafayette Parish.
″I’d just like to tell the Richard family that I’m very, very sorry. I hope in their hearts they can forgive,″ Celestine said before the first jolt of electricity was administered at 12:20.
He was pronounced dead at 12:27 a.m. Warden Hilton Butler said.
Among the witnesses to the execution were two of Mrs. Richard’s grandsons his attorney Willard Farmer of Atlanta and Celestine’s spiritual advisor, anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean.
″Tell my family that I love them,″ Celestine said. ″And thank you Sister Helen for standing by my side.″
He smiled at Prejean and Farmer, and mouthed the words, ″I love you,″ to Sister Prejean, before becoming the fifth man to be put to death in Louisiana since executions resumed in June.
Gov. Edwin Edwards turned down a last-minute request to block Celestine’s execution just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court also turned down an appeal. Two justices, William Joseph Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, dissented, said court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.
Farmer had appealed to the Supreme Court in an effort to delay the execution until an international human-rights organization could review Celestine’s case.
A last-ditch attempt by Celestine’s attorneys to secure a meeting of the state’s four-member Pardon Board apparently failed. The board’s acting chairman said that Edwards, who appoints the board, had refused to block the execution.
Celestine was the 12 person executed in Louisiana since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1983.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Celestine’s appeal Saturday, after it was turned down by a federal court judge Thursday.
His death date has been postponed five times in the last three years.
Celestine spent part of Sunday night calmly talking to friends on the telephone, Warden Hilton Butler said when asked about the condemned man’s final activities.
Celestine spent part of Sunday night calmly talking to friends on the telephone, Butler said when asked about the condemned man’s final activities.
Celestine spent most of the day with visitors, including his mother, father, sister and brother, anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean, Farmer and two paralegals, the warden said.
In a four-minute recorded confession, played during his trial, Celestine said he was drunk and ″full of speed″ when he strangled Mrs. Richard and broke seven of her ribs and a vertebra in her neck after raping her.
″I really didn’t mean to do anything. I just caught myself doing the wrong thing. I was just high,″ Celestine said in the confession.
Celestine, a high school dropout with a dishonorable discharge from the Army, was sentenced to death by state Judge John R. Mouton in Lafayette Parish in 1982.
Celestine also was sentenced to life in prison for breaking into the homes of two other elderly women in the same Lafayette neighborhood and raping them.
Celestine had no previous criminal record before the rapes and Mrs. Richard’s murder, said Lafayette Assistant District Attorney Mike Harson, who prosecuted Celestine.
″If the woman had been asleep, she would probably never have been killed. It’s just that she was up and ready to go on a trip. She was up and tried to defend herself,″ Harson said. ″The other two ladies were in bed. It’s just too bad that she was ready to go somewhere.″
Celestine’s mother, Theresa, declined comment.
″I have nothing to say. I don’t have to talk with you because I have nothing to say,″ Mrs. Celestine said Saturday.
The Inter-American Commission, which is part of the Organization of American States, sent telegrams to U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Edwards to halt Celestine’s execution.
″It is very unusual for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to hear a complaint of this nature, it’s very unusual to seek the relief that they’re doing,″ Farmer said.
″It all comes about because Louisiana focused attention onto itself by executing and preparing to execute more people in this state than in the nation in 40 years’ time,″ he said.
In addition to Willie Celestine, Willie Watson of New Orleans is scheduled for execution early Friday and John Brogdon of New Orleans has been condemned to die July 30. Four men were executed in Louisiana last month. Two men set for execution this month have been given temporary reprieves.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit rejected claims that Celestine’s death sentence was imposed in a racially discriminatory manner in violation of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the OAS Charter.
″Not a single argument is advanced directed at proving that the United States in these international agreements agreed to provide additional factors for decision or to modify the decisional factors required by the United States Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court,″ the decision said.
″The argument is ingenious but content is wholly lacking,″ it added.
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