Robert Austin Sullivan (July 20, 1947 – November 30, 1983)[1] was an American man who was executed by the state of Florida in the electric chair for the 1973 murder of a Howard Johnson's restaurant manager.

His execution generated attention when Pope John Paul II personally pleaded for clemency to spare Sullivan's life, however, Governor Bob Graham refused the appeal.

[5] On the evening of April 8, 1973, Sullivan and his accomplice, Reid McLaughlin, went to a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Homestead, Florida.

Schmidt was abducted, had his hands tied behind his back with tape, and was then taken by the pair to a remote area in a swamp located in the Everglades.

[7] Sullivan had reportedly told police that the motive for the crime had been robbery, and that he needed the money to pay a blackmailer who was threatening to tell his father that he was homosexual.