Robert's mother left his father and remarried but both relationships were bad. She couldn't handle raising him on her own so he'd often spend time with his grandparents or aunt and uncle. After Faith's murder, she helps him evade the law. They're both caught and law enforcement threatens to arrest her if Robert doesn't confess.

Robert stopped going to school by the time he was a teenager. He was huffing paint, glue and doing other drugs by the time he was in 7th grade. When he was 14 he was arrested for shoplifting- stealing a bottle of wine from a convenience store. By the time he murders Faith-at 26- he's a regular drug user and he's been arrested 30 times.

Robert's team argues that a number of things unfairly biased his jury during his trial:

> exhaustive media coverage and digging into his life gave everyone an impression of Robert before they got the facts of the case

> his lawyer didn't provide important details about his life, like his neglectful, abusive home and his drug addiction, that could have persuaded them to go with a life sentence

> many members of the jury heard part of Joe Vaccaro's trial, which made Robert seem more guilty

The pardon board only took 20 minutes to deliberate and denied him a pardon.

He was eventually tried and convicted of taking bribes in exchange for pardons in a number of cases, but never in death penalty cases.

He explains to Sr Helen that the pardon board was set up so that the governor didn't have to take personal responsibility for executions, he could just point to the board and say "that's what they decided." But no case was ever granted a pardon.

Marsellus says that for the few years he was head of the board he couldn't sleep and he was wracked with guilt for the men who were executed whose cases he felt were questionable.

On the one hand:

He is working to improve conditions on death row, he works diligently on his case, and he is very courteous and direct with Sister Helen. He tells her he reads his Bible regularly.

On the other hand:

We know he had a significant role in Faith's murder. He has so far admitted to holding her hands down while Vaccaro stabbed her, and then leaving her in the woods.

He tells Sr Helen he had been high on Valium for 2 days before the murder and was blindly following Vaccaro's orders.

He says it's hard for him to sympathize with Faith's parents because they want him to die.

He orders his mother to "dry up" when she starts crying at his sentencing.

He laughs and sneers at the cameras in the courtroom during his trial and makes gestures at the two victims there to testify against him.

Instead of the death penalty, Sr Helen argues for mandatory minimum sentences for murder. She says we can't have too light sentences because then victims and the public won't trust that justice can happen, but that the death penalty process is too corruptible.

She views her role with Robert as helping him die with integrity. To do this he must take responsibility for what he's done, stop blaming others, and apologize to the Harveys- even if they won't accept it.