Frank J. Coppola, a former police officer, was sentenced to death for the 1978 murder of Muriel Hatchell. Coppola was aided by his second wife Karen Evans and his friends Joseph Miltier and Donna Mills. Coppola and Miltier had paired up for illicit purposes in the past, convicted of burglarizing an equipment company in June 1971. Coppola served one year in prison for that crime. Muriel, the wife of Peyton Hatchell, a prosperous car dealer, was murdered during a 1978 robbery at her home in Newport News. Police theorized that the group knew that Peyton Hatchell sometimes carried payroll cash in his car. The group had tried to enter the Hatchell home a few days before the murder when Coppola had knocked on the door dressed as a priest. The ruse failed and Muriel did not open the door. Donna Mills, disguised as a flower delivery woman with a bouquet of roses, succeeded in gaining access to the home. Once inside, she pulled out a pistol from amidst the floral display which she was carrying, allowing cover for Coppola and others to rush into the home. Muriel was bound with venetian blind cords, choked and slapped in the face in an effort to get her to tell them where her husband hid money. They also threatened to cut off her breasts, and cut her in that area. Then her head was slammed repeatedly into floor by Coppola. The attack was still going on when Peyton Hatchell walked in and was struck on the head with a pistol. Karen Evans was waiting in the getaway car during the robbery and murder. The group fled with $3,100 in cash and some rings from the crime scene. Before help could arrive, Muriel died from her head injuries and asphyxiation of her own vomit. After his September 26, 1978 conviction, Coppola, who had been a seminary drop-out when he was younger, dropped appeals and volunteered to have his sentence carried out, saying that he wished to spare his family the ''tremendous hardship'' of further appeals and to save his two sons from "schoolyard taunts." His accomplices all received life sentences, however Karen Evans's sentence was later reduced to 20 years.

On the morning of December 14, 1976, Marlene Smith, an admitted prostitute, thief, and heroin addict, traded sexual services for the use of a car from a used car dealer. She then picked up Woody Loudres and Charlie Brooks, Jr. at a liquor store. Smith testified that she and Loudres lived together in Room 15 of the New Lincoln Motel in Tarrant County. Smith had been acquainted with Brooks for two weeks and Brooks had on occasion stayed with them at the motel. Smith, Loudres and Brooks drove back to the motel, where Smith and Loudres took heroin. The three then drove to the home of Brooks's mother, where they drank. The trio then left, heading for the south side of Forth Worth so that Smith could go shoplifting. In response to a question as to whether Brooks and Loudres were going shoplifting with her, Smith testified without objection "they were with me" and Brooks had his "booster coat on." As they were driving, the car vapor-locked and they pushed it into a service station. They were unable to get the car started and, according to Smith, Brooks left the other two and walked to a nearby used car lot to "get a car to test drive" so that the three would have transportation to the south side. An employee of the used car lot talked to Brooks when he walked onto the lot and asked to test drive a car. Brooks was wearing a tan topcoat at the time. Company policy required that customers who walked onto the lot and asked to test drive a car had to be accompanied by an employee. David Gregory was told to accompany Brooks around the block. David was a paint and body repair man who sometimes assisted as a mechanic and also answered wrecker calls. David went along as Brooks drove to a location where Smith and Loudres were waiting in the vapor-locked car. Loudres got into the car with Gregory and Brooks. They drove off with Gregory, leaving Smith with the broken-down car. A car identified as the one taken on a test drive from the used car lot was driven into the New Lincoln Motel at about 6:00 pm. Brooks and Loudres were in the car at the time. Brooks released a man from the trunk of the car and took him at gunpoint into Room 17 of the motel. Loudres came to the office of the motel and told the manager's wife, Emma Speers, that they had a man tied up and "we are going to have to kill him." Brooks also came to the window of the motel office, pointed a large revolver at Speers' head, and told her, "You're ignorant. If you say anything, I'll blow you and your daughter's brains out." Brooks then walked away from the motel, returned a few minutes later, and walked toward Room 17. Shots were heard soon thereafter. During this time a woman who was delivering cleaning to the motel talked to Speers. When she left the motel she noted the license number on the car in which Brooks and Loudres had arrived. After leaving the premises she notified the police. After hearing the shots, Speers also notified the police and her husband, the manager of the motel. Loudres and Brooks were seen leaving the motel by the back entrance. Fort Worth police officers arrived at 6:24 pm. They were advised that shots had been fired. The officers began checking the rooms for signs of foul play. They began their checking at Room 13. Room 15 was unlocked and empty. Rooms 16 and 17 were locked. When Room 17 was unlocked by the manager, Gregory's body was found bound and gagged with adhesive tape and shot in the face. Phil Watson testified that at about 11:00 pm that night he met Loudres and Brooks at the Flamingo Club in south Fort Worth. Loudres asked Watson to drive them back to the New Lincoln Motel. When they arrived, the manager told Loudres to leave. When they were passed by two police cars, Brooks stated that "there had been a killing." Watson, Loudres and Brooks were arrested later at Watson's home. Brooks, who grew up in a wealthy family, was previously convicted in the State of Louisiana in September 1962 and was sentenced to three years for the offense of "simple burglary" in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. He was paroled in 1963 and his parole was revoked in 1965. Brooks also pled guilty in Texas in 1968 to three counts of illegal possession of firearms. Brooks was also convicted in Walker County, Texas of Theft over $50 and Burglary. Almost five years after Brooks was convicted, Woody Lourdes, who had been indicted for and convicted of the same offense, and whose conviction had been reversed on appeal, made a plea bargain with the State, pleaded guilty to non-capital murder and was sentenced to forty years in prison. Loudres served only 11 years for his role in the murder before being paroled in 1989. 

John Louis Evans III was sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Edward Nasser, Jr. Evans had been paroled from prison in Indiana in 1976 and immediately embarked upon a crime spree with fellow parolee Wayne Ritter. Evans admitted to participating in almost three dozen armed robberies, at least nine kidnappings and two extortions in addition to the murder of Edward Nasser. Edward owned a pawn shop in Mobile, Alabama. The pair shot Edward in the back as he crawled along the floor in his store, with his two young daughters (seven and nine years old) nearby. The pair also stole another gun to use in their continuing crime spree. Two neighborhood children wrote down the license plate number of the car. The FBI finally caught the pair in Little Rock, Arkansas about two months after the murders. Evans gave a detailed confession to the entire crime spree. He was put on trial in Mobile for first-degree murder committed during a robbery. Evans, who grew up in a wealthy family, said he felt no remorse for his crimes, including the murder, and threatened that he would certainly kill again under the same circumstances. He told the jury that if they didn’t sentence him to death, he vowed to escape and kill every single one of them. The jurors deliberated less than 15 minutes before convicting Evans of capital murder.

Robert Sullivan was a former manager of the restaurant, and had been dismissed in June, 1972. On the night of April 8, 1973, Sullivan, along with Reid McLaughlin, robbed the Howard Johnson's restaurant in Homestead, Florida where Sullivan had formerly been employed. Sullivan and McLaughlin abducted the assistant shift manager, Donald Schmidt, taped his wrists behind his back, and drove him to a swampy area near the restaurant. Sullivan struck Schmidt twice on the back of the head with a tire iron and then shot him twice in the back of the head, each time with both barrels of a double barrel .12-gauge shotgun. On April 11, 1973, the body of Donald Schmidt, a 38-year-old father of 4 children, was found. When Sullivan was arrested, the police found Schmidt's credit cards and watch. The police also found a shotgun, a handgun, white adhesive tape and a bloody tire iron in Sullivan's car. Sullivan subsequently confessed to the murder of Schmidt and implicated McLaughlin. He stated that he wanted to "see what it felt like to kill someone." McLaughlin also confessed, but entered into a plea bargain with the state. McLaughlin was promised a life sentence in exchange for his testimony at Sullivan's trial. McLaughlin served only 7 years before being paroled. Sullivan was convicted by a jury in Dade County, Florida in November 1973. The jury recommended a sentence of death. Sullivan had been adopted at the age of two weeks by a Harvard-educated doctor and his wife. He attended the University of Miami for four years. Sullivan had no violent criminal record prior to this murder but was on probation for a theft conviction. The Roman Catholic church became involved in the case and tried to stop the execution. Pope John Paul II asked then-Governor Graham to commute Sullivan's death sentence. As the judge stated when imposing sentence, "The defendant in this case saw fit to braggadociously state that he wanted to commit a 'crime' which in his mind was to be 'the perfect crime.' The decedent was bound with hands behind his body with adhesive tape, mentally toyed with by the defendant as to operating and management techniques of the establishment where he worked, a place where the defendant himself had previously been employed. After this mental exercise, the decedent was led to a lonely spot in Dade County with hands still behind him and as he stumbled in the darkness, struck from behind with a tire iron, and then again from behind, while on the ground in a total helpless position, was mortally wounded with four blasts from a .12 gauge shotgun to the back of the head. This Court cannot conceive of a more conscienceless crime. This Court has observed the demeanor and the action of the defendant throughout this entire trial and has not observed one scintilla of remorsefulness displayed, indicating full well to this Court that the death penalty is the proper selection of the punishment to be imposed in this particular case."

Anthony Antone was part of a Mafia-enterprise whose membership grew as its criminal interests diversified. The enterprise was founded by Frank Diecidue who sought protection of his vending machine business through the murder of a new competitor, Manuel Garcia. Diecidue supposedly recruited Anthony Antone and Manuel Gispert in April or May of 1975 to carry out the crime. In June Antone brought Ellis Marlow Haskew into the enterprise to drive for Gispert while he attempted to shoot Garcia. Gispert obtained the shotgun for the attempt and told Haskew that Diecidue was to pay the three $20,000 for the killing. Twice Haskew and Gispert drove to Garcia's hotel with a loaded shotgun but failed to locate him. The next attempt on Garcia's life was made with explosives. In May, Gispert had met with Larry Neil Miller and Willie Noriega and had purchased a gun from Miller. At that meeting Miller asked Noriega to obtain explosives and suggested he deal with Gispert through Miller so Miller could hike up the price and make some money. Noriega was never able to supply the requested explosives. During the last week of June, Gispert and Haskew drove to a service plaza on the highway from Tampa to Miami where they picked up dynamite from Frank Boni, Jr. The dynamite was transported back to Antone's house where Antone constructed a triggering device and showed Gispert and Haskew how to attach the dynamite to it. On June 28 Antone, Gispert and Haskew attached the bomb to Garcia's car. The device exploded, destroying the car and injuring Garcia. Gispert led Garcia to believe that the attempt on his life had been ordered by Cesar Rodriguez, a Tampa bar owner, and Garcia in turn, offered $20,000 for Rodriguez' murder. Gispert also obtained murder contracts from codefendant Victor Acosta on the lives of Bernard Dempsey, a former U. S. Attorney, and Richard Cloud, a former Tampa police officer now working as a private investigator. In July Gispert and Haskew drove to Miami where they delivered six ounces of cocaine, obtained from Acosta, to Boni. Gispert, Haskew and Antone divided the profits. Later in July the same trio decided to carry out the Rodriguez murder with explosives. Gispert procured the dynamite through Homer Rex Davis, Antone constructed a triggering device and Gispert and Haskew placed the bomb. When the bomb detonated the car was destroyed and the driver, a family friend, was injured. Gispert and Haskew made several unsuccessful attempts to locate and kill Dempsey in August and September. Acosta had issued the contract on Dempsey's life because, as a US Attorney, Dempsey had prosecuted several organized crime figures and Acosta owed him over $40,000 in legal fees for work done as a defense attorney after leaving the prosecutor's office. In September the enterprise gained another member when Haskew assisted Benjamin Gilford to escape from prison. Gilford agreed to serve as triggerman on five murder contracts issued by Acosta. Dempsey, Cloud and Rodriguez were identified as three of the intended victims. Later in September Haskew and Gilford unsuccessfully attempted to murder Rodriguez with a sawed-off shotgun during a car chase through Tampa. In September and October Haskew and Gilford, joined on one occasion by Miller, committed several robberies. The proceeds were used to finance enterprise activities or support the participants. The enterprise obtained equipment to carry out the contract murders in September and October. Antone and Haskew purchased a van which was modified into an "assassination" vehicle by cutting shotgun slits in the sides. Antone also gave Haskew a .32 caliber automatic pistol and silencer which he had obtained from Acosta. Gispert had given the weapon to Acosta to procure a silencer. Miller bought the ammunition for the weapon and he and Haskew test-fired it. Richard Cloud was targeted for murder because, as a Tampa policeman, he had harassed Acosta in his drug business and was expected to testify in October at the trial of a close friend of Acosta's. On October 23, Haskew and Gilford drove to Cloud's home, and while Haskew circled the block, Gilford fatally shot Cloud, a married father with 2 children, three times with the silenced .32 caliber pistol when he answered a knock at the front door. After the murder, Haskew traveled to Miami where he discussed obtaining counterfeit money with Harvey Davenport and George DeFeis, who were also indicted as co-conspirators in the enterprise. In November Haskew made another trip to Miami and stole a kilogram of cocaine, "speed" capsules, a coin collection and jewelry from DeFeis. The cocaine and a diamond ring were turned over to Antone, who sold the cocaine to Acosta. Another ring, the coins and speed were given to Miller. In December, Haskew purchased from Davenport $40,000 in counterfeit bills, some of which Haskew passed in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Miller attempted to sell some of the bills and used a counterfeit hundred dollar bill to purchase cologne in a Clearwater department store. In January 1976 Miller, according to Haskew's testimony, asked Haskew to get him a weapon with a silencer so that he and Scarface Rivera could make a hit on a man living in a trailer who intended to testify against them. Haskew was never able to supply the weapon. In February Gilford attempted to recruit another participant to complete remaining murder contracts and was subsequently arrested. Haskew was arrested shortly thereafter. Both confessed, setting forth the details of the conspiracy. The evidence upon which Anthony Antone was convicted and sentenced showed that he arranged the contract murder of Richard Cloud. Antone provided the murder gun, test-fired it into a couch in his home, specially equipped it, and disposed of the gun after the murder. Antone also paid $1,500 "front money" before the murder and between $7,000 and $8,000 after the murder. Benjamin Gilford, the confessed triggerman, committed suicide while awaiting sentencing. Co-conspirators Vic Acosta, the man who communicated the contracts to Antone, died in jail of a drug overdose and Marlow Haskew, the driver of the car, testified against Antone at trial and plea-bargained for a sentence of not more than 35 years. Antone had a prior conviction for 2 counts of armed robbery. The jury took only an hour and a half to return a guilty verdict and less than half an hour to sentence Antone to death.

David Vogler, 28, left his home in Kenner, Louisiana around 8:45 pm on February 8, 1980. He told his wife that a black man had called him and requested to see a 1976 Buick the Voglers had displayed for sale in a nearby parking lot. The next morning David Vogler was found, stabbed some twenty times, stuffed in the trunk of his car, where he had been left by his murderer to bleed to death. His car, a 1979 Cadillac, was parked in the lot where the Buick had been. The Buick was missing. On June 14, 1980, Johnny Taylor, Jr. was stopped for a traffic violation in Millry, Alabama while driving the Buick. The arresting officer testified that he stopped Taylor after Taylor had crossed the highway and swerved in front of the oncoming patrol car. Taylor did not produce a valid driver's license when asked. While a check of the Buick's registration was being conducted by the Millry police, Taylor fled. His companions, Linda Pugh and Samuel Young, were arrested when the registration check revealed that the Buick had been stolen and its owner murdered. The next day, detectives from the Kenner police department drove to Millry, Alabama. They interviewed Young and Pugh. They ascertained that the Buick was in fact the one stolen from the Voglers. In the trunk of the Buick they found receipts for body work done at a local garage. The garage owner gave them a copy of a repair estimate he had given Taylor on February 9, 1980, for body work and a paint job. Taylor was arrested on June 17, 1980, for an unrelated auto theft in Butler, Alabama. The Kenner Police detectives questioned Taylor there on June 18, 1980. Taylor signed a written statement indicating he had not come into possession of the Buick until March 1980. When the detectives confronted Taylor with their knowledge that he had taken the car to a garage on February 9, 1980, Taylor stated that he had purchased the Buick on that date from Allen Thomas, a white male known to him, and a black man. At trial, Taylor testified that he identified the black man in his oral statement as "Charlie Robertson's brother-in-law." The detectives testified that they did not recall hearing a name other than Thomas. The detectives did not reduce the second statement to writing because they were convinced that Taylor was lying. Taylor's fingerprints and palmprints, as well as hair samples, were taken in Alabama and later sent by the Kenner police to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for comparison with latent prints lifted from the Cadillac in which Vogler's body was found. The FBI reported that Taylor's left palm print matched a partial print found on the trunk lid of the Cadillac. Taylor's hair was also found to be similar to and indistinguishable from hairs found in the visor of the Cadillac. Taylor was indicted on June 28, 1980, and later extradited to Louisiana. Taylor was tried for first degree murder in March 1981. The state relied on Taylor's possession of the Buick almost immediately after its theft and Vogler's murder, Taylor's unsatisfactory explanations of how he came into possession of the Buick, and two pieces of evidence connecting Taylor to the crime scene: the partial palm print and the hairs. Taylor testified that he had not even been in the state of Louisiana since 1978, and that his palm print and hairs could not possibly have been lifted from the victim's Cadillac. Taylor's alibi witnesses, however, were not persuasive, and the jury found him guilty of first degree murder. During the sentencing phase of Taylor's trial, the state relied on evidence previously adduced to show the presence of two "aggravating factors" under the Louisiana death penalty statute; Taylor was engaged in armed robbery when he murdered Vogler, and the murder was committed "in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner". Taylor's attorney presented no new evidence at the sentencing stage. He began to argue that the unreliability of the evidence against Taylor was a factor which the jury should consider in deciding whether to recommend the death penalty. The trial judge forbade this line of argument because it went to the issue of guilt rather than to the appropriateness of capital punishment. Taylor's attorney made no other argument on Taylor's behalf. The presentencing report showed unfavorable information that the defense team decided not to enter, including the fact that Taylor had been discharged from the armed forces as "an undesirable", and that he did not contribute to the support of three illegitimate children. The jury recommended that Taylor be sentenced to die, and the trial judge later entered the death sentence.

On the evening of April 20, 1980, Port Arthur, Texas police received a report of a shooting at a Sak-N-Pak grocery store. Arriving officers found Joseph Broussard, a Catholic priest, lying dead on his back with a telephone in his hand, shot through the neck and head; Shirley Drouet, 43, the grocery clerk and mother of five children, seated near a grocery display dying of a gunshot between the eyes; and Anthanasios Svarnas, a Greek seaman, lying seriously wounded in the store parking lot. He survived but suffered brain damage as a result of his injuries. The cash register was turned to an off position, its register tape showing that the last sales were of cigarettes. Nothing was taken from the cash register or the victims, although Father Joe had cash in his wallet as did Shirley in her purse. A carton of beer, worth $2.70, was stolen. Within four hours, John R. Sandifer arrived at the Port Arthur police station accompanied by his two sons, John Alton and Mark. Based on his statement John Alton Sandifer was arrested and an arrest warrant for James David Autry was issued. Two pistols, of .32 and .38-caliber, brought to the station by the Sandifers were secured as evidence. Mark Sandifer had taken the pistols from Autry shortly before the stationhouse trip. Port Arthur police officers Gary Martin and Bill Edmonds were told by radio of the outstanding warrant and at about 1:45 a.m. arrested Autry at the trailer-house he shared with John Alton Sandifer. Detective Edmonds told Autry he was being arrested for the two murders at the Sak-N-Pak store, Shirley Drouet having died in the meantime, and gave full Miranda warnings. Officers searched the trailer with Autry's consent. After questioning, Autry, who went by the nickname of "Cowboy," signed a written statement. At about 1:00 p.m., Autry was allowed to telephone his mother. Officer John Anderson testified at trial that he heard Autry make incriminating statements on the phone. Q. What did you hear the defendant say? A. Whoever he was talking to on the other end he told them that he was in Port Arthur Jail. And that he was charged with two counts of murder. Q. What happened then? A. Okay. There was kind of a pause. And I assume whoever was on the other end was saying something. And he said that he had gone into this store and he was going to rob it but it just gone bad. Q. What did he say then? A. He said that he started shooting but once he started he just couldn't stop. Q. Okay. Did he say anything else? A. If I remember right towards the end of the conversation he stated that whoever was on the other end should not worry because he was going to get out of it. Autry was indicted for capital murder. Before trial and after a hearing, Autry's motion to suppress his written statement was granted. The state trial court found that the police officers had not honored Autry's request to remain silent. He denied Autry's motion to suppress his oral statements overheard by Officer Anderson. At trial, it was developed that Autry's telephone call from the booking room was to his mother. The oral statements were admitted over his objection that they were tainted by the illegality that accompanied the written statement he had given approximately six and one-half hours earlier. John Richard Sandifer, Judy Francis Sandifer and Mark Sandifer testified for the state. All had been granted immunity over Autry's objection. Autry objected to the grant of immunity unless John Alton Sandifer was also granted immunity. John Alton was then under indictment for capital murder. Despite Autry's request, Texas refused to grant immunity to John Alton Sandifer, and, out of the jury's presence, he invoked the Fifth Amendment when called by Autry at trial. The father, John Richard Sandifer, explained to the jury that he and his son Mark had gone to a trailer-house in the late evening on April 20, 1980, where Mark obtained two pistols which belonged to him and picked up his brother, John Alton; that they took John Alton and the pistols to the police station. John Richard Sandifer was testifying under a grant of immunity, and the state had offered John Alton twenty-five years for a plea to a burglary charge. Mark testified that around noon on April 20, 1980, he loaned his 1978 El Camino to his brother, John Alton. Mark explained to the jury that he did not see his brother again until around 9 p.m. that night when he saw the loaned car parked at a Sak-N-Pak with Autry standing by it. Angry that his brother had been gone with his car so long, he stopped and asked Autry where his brother John Alton was. Autry replied that he was in the store. John Alton then exited the store and got into the El Camino. He told Mark to follow him to the trailer. Autry got into the car with Mark and Mark's wife and children and they followed the El Camino out. Mark testified that he did not see a body in the parking lot when he left. He related that Autry then asked him to stop the car. When he did so, Autry got out, pulling a chrome-plated, stainless steel pistol, and ran back toward the store which two men were approaching. Mark followed the El Camino to his brother's trailer, picked up the El Camino, his wife driving his car, and left. Finally, he described, as did his father, the trip to the trailer where John Alton and the guns were picked up. He added that when he asked Autry for his father's guns, Autry pulled his father's chrome-plated pistol from his pocket and gave it to him. He explained that Autry reluctantly produced the second pistol, but "told me that he wasn't going to give it to me ... he knew that I knew that he killed some people.... He told me that he killed four people. He said that I just killed four people and you know it." Mark then identified state's exhibits as the two guns. Mark's wife Judy confirmed Mark's testimony regarding their arriving at the Sak-N-Pak store at around 9 p.m. and Autry's return to the store. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and sentenced him to death. In 1988, Autry's brother Robert Allen Autry was sentenced to life in prison for murders committed in Odessa and Amarillo in June of 1984. Testimony showed that Robert Autry ate the eyeball of one of his victims. He committed suicide in jail on September 26, 1988, only a week after sentencing.

On May 31, 1979, James W. Hutchins shot and killed two law enforcement officers in Rutherford County, North Carolina who responded domestic disturbance call. He then fled the scene in a vehicle and subsequently murdered a state trooper who pulled him over. Deputy Sheriff Owen Messersmith, 58, Trooper Robert "Pete" Peterson, 37, and Deputy Sheriff Roy Huskey, 42, were shot and killed after responding to a domestic dispute between Hutchens and his 17-year-old daughter in Rutherford County. They were arguing about the amount of liquor in the punch that was served at a graduation party. She fled next door and called police after being hit, punched and kicked by her father. Deputy Huskey was the first officer dispatched to the scene and was shot in the head by the suspect as he exited his patrol car. When Deputy Huskey failed to check in, Deputy Messersmith responded to the scene. As he pulled into the driveway he saw Deputy Huskey laying next to the patrol car, and he began to back out of the driveway. The suspect opened fire on Deputy Messersmith as he backed out of the driveway, striking him in the head. A neighbor called the sheriff's office to report that two deputies had been shot. Trooper Peterson heard garbled radio traffic, and although couldn't make out the transmissions, determined something was wrong and began to head toward Rutherfordton. As he drove into town the suspect sped by him. Trooper Peterson turned around and attempted to stop the car, thinking it was a speeding vehicle and not knowing the suspect had just murdered two deputies. Trooper Peterson's last transmission was that the suspect was running into the woods. Trooper Peterson as found suffering a from a gunshot wound to the head. His service revolver had been fired once. In prior cases, Hutchins went AWOL from the Air Force in April of 1954 and was hitch-hiking back to North Carolina when shot a Texas man with a .22 pistol. He claimed the man was going to rob him and received a 5-10 year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. In December 1966, Hutchins was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill after attacking the husband of his ex-wife. Before his execution, Hutchins expressed remorse for his crimes and hoped people would forgive him.

Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who worked as an optician at Texas State Optical Company, had serious financial problems. The family was delinquent on a number of loans and had been forced to sell their home to meet their most pressing obligations. O'Bryan discussed his financial burdens with friends and acquaintances, informing some of them that he expected to receive some money by the end of the year. Despite his financial difficulties, O'Bryan substantially increased the life insurance coverage on his two children, Timothy and Elizabeth Lane, during 1974. By mid-October there was $30,000 worth of coverage on each child, while the coverage on O'Bryan and his wife was minimal. In August, 1974, O'Bryan tried unsuccessfully to obtain cyanide where he worked. In September, he called a friend who worked at Arco Chemical Company, and the two discussed the varieties and availability of cyanide. O'Bryan continued to discuss cyanide among his fellow employees at Texas State Optical. Shortly before Halloween, O'Bryan appeared at Curtin Matheson Scientific Company, a chemical outlet in Houston. When he discovered that the company had cyanide available only in large quantities, O'Bryan asked the salesperson where he could obtain a smaller amount. On Halloween, Thursday, October 31, 1974, the O'Bryan family dined at the home of the Bates family. The children of both families had planned to go "trick or treating" together in the Bates' neighborhood. The defendant and Mr. Bates accompanied O'Bryan's children and Bates' son on the Halloween outing. When the party arrived at the Melvins' home, the lights were out, but O'Bryan and the children went up to the home anyway. When no one answered the door, the children went on to the next house; O'Bryan remained behind for about thirty seconds. He then ran up to the children, "switching" at least two "giant pixy styx" in the air and exclaiming that "rich neighbors" were handing out expensive treats. O'Bryan offered to carry the pixy styx for the children. Back at the Bates' home, O'Bryan distributed the pixy styx to his and Bates' two children, and gave a fifth stick to a boy who came to "trick or treat" at the door. After the Halloween festivities had been completed, O'Bryan took his children home, while his wife went to visit a friend. O'Bryan informed the children that they could each have one piece of candy before going to bed; Timothy chose the pixy stick. The boy had trouble getting the candy out of the tube, so O'Bryan rolled the stick in his hand to loosen the candy for his son. When Timothy complained that the candy had a bitter taste, O'Bryan gave him some Kool-Aid to wash it down. Timothy immediately became ill and ran to the bathroom, where he started vomiting. When Timothy became sicker and went into convulsions, O'Bryan summoned an ambulance. Timothy died within an hour after he arrived at the hospital. Cyanide was found in fluids aspirated from his stomach and in his blood. The quantity of cyanide in the blood was well above the fatal human dose. There was conflicting testimony at trial concerning the extent to which O'Bryan showed remorse at the hospital and at his son's funeral. During the days following Halloween, O'Bryan gave conflicting stories as to the origin of the pixy styx, but he eventually claimed that the pixy styx came from the Melvin home. Mr. Melvin was at work, however, until late in the evening on Halloween. O'Bryan was charged with and convicted of capital murder. At the sentencing proceeding, the State reintroduced the evidence that it had presented at trial and the defendant presented nine lay witnesses who stated that they did not believe that O'Bryan was likely to be a danger to society in the future. The jury answered the two special issues affirmatively and O'Bryan was sentenced to die. As described by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: A more calculated and cold-blooded crime than the one for which O'Bryan was convicted can hardly be imagined. O'Bryan murdered his child in order to collect life insurance money. The record reflects months of premeditation and planning. As Halloween neared, he took out new and additional life insurance policies on both of his children, made his diligent and successful search for the poison which he was to use, set up plans to insure that he would take his children "trick or treating," bought the children their costumes, and even began making plans to spend the money which he would collect upon the deaths of his children. Well before the carefully planned and executed murder, O'Bryan began to consider buying a new house, paying off his debts, and even quitting his job. O'Bryan, in order to execute his plan to murder his son and to collect the life insurance proceeds, and to escape detection in doing so, was willing to and attempted to commit murder four more times. When he intentionally distributed the four additional poisoned pixy styx to the other children, the likely and predictable result of his acts was to cause their deaths also. The lives which O'Bryan was willing to sacrifice in order to carry out the murder of his son included those of the two children of his good friend Jimmy Bates, and another child who attended O'Bryan's church, and his own daughter, whose life was also heavily insured. The jury also had before it evidence of O'Bryan's attempt to implicate another for the poisoning death, by a positive identification of another man as the source of the candy, when the evidence showed that this could not have been true. Further, the jury had before it evidence of O'Bryan's attitude toward his crime. There was testimony that he was "excited" by widespread news coverage of his son's death. There was also various testimony concerning the disparity between O'Bryan's public displays of grief over his son's death and his behavior when the circumstances were more private. The jury also heard testimony that at approximately 9:00 a.m. on November 1, the morning after his son's death the previous night, O'Bryan called his life insurance agent to find out how to collect the proceeds of the policy on his son. At approximately 9:30 a.m. this same morning after his son's death, he inquired at his bank about collecting on a policy there, also. Further, over the next several days, O'Bryan openly discussed how he would use the proceeds of the life insurance; these plans included taking an extended vacation. By his entire conduct, including the facts that O'Bryan, in such a deliberate and calculated way, took the life of his own child for money and jeopardized the lives of four others, the jury could have concluded that O'Bryan had a wanton and callous disregard for human life; the evidence is sufficient for the jury to have found that there is a probability that O'Bryan would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society. 

Arthur Frederick Goode, III was a child molester who went on a crime spree that resulted in the abduction, rape and murder of two boys and the kidnapping and sexual assault of at least one other boy. In his teenage years, Goode had been arrested three times for sexually assaulting minors in his neighborhood. His parents bailed him out each time. In March of 1975, Goode was again arrested on five sexual assault charges regarding a 9-year-old boy. His parents paid the $25,000 bond but while out on bail, Goode molested an 11-year-old boy. Incredibly, he received only a 5 year probation sentence, on the condition that he undergo voluntary psychiatric treatment at a state hospital. Less than four months later, Goode left the hospital and hopped a bus for home. A bench warrant was issued but no further action was taken to arrest Goode. On March 5, 1976, Goode asked 9-year-old Jason VerDow to help him find something in the woods near a  bus stop where the boy was waiting. Goode later said, "I told him he was going to die and described how I would kill him. I asked him if he had any last words and he said, "I love you," and then I strangled him." Goode said he strangled the boy by putting a belt around his neck and swinging him through the air. The body of Jason VerDow was found near Pondella Road in Cape Coral, Florida, nude except for his socks. A memorial park was later established in Jason's name in Cape Coral, Florida. Goode was questioned in Jason's murder on two occasions, so he left town and returned to the state hospital, however he did not remain long. He imagined that the receptionist was calling the police to turn him in so he fled. He then kidnapped 10-year-old paperboy Billy Arthes, taking him to Washington, D.C. where they spent the next 10 days touring the capital. On March 20, Goode picked up 11-year-old Kenny Dawson and took him and Billy on a bus to Tysons Corner, Virginia. While there, Goode took the boys on a hike in a wooded area where he forced Kenny to undress, sexually assaulted him and then strangled him with a belt in front of a frightened and horrified Billy. That same week, a woman in Falls Church recognized Billy Arthes from news photos and called the police, resulting in Goode's arrest and Billy's rescue. When Goode was placed under arrest, he said to police, "You can't to nothing to me. I'm sick." Goode wrote a letter to Jason's parents, saying, "Ha! Ha! I murdered your sexy little boy, Jason, and I'm proud of it!" Goode was tried in Maryland for Kenny Dawson's murder and sentenced to life in prison. Extradited to Florida, Goode went on trial for the murder of Jason VerDow. Goode acted as his own attorney and a brave 11-year-old Billy Arthes testified that he was in Goode's company for several days shortly after Jason VerDow's murder and that Goode had told him that he had killed Jason. After Billy's brave testimony was complete, Goode handed him a piece of candy and said: "I love you, Billy. Goodbye." The trial judge's handling of the matter was forceful, effective and appropriate. He called a recess for coffee, and forcefully reprimanded Goode out of the presence of the jury. Goode, although he declined to plead guilty, systematically and cleverly brought out evidence to assure his own conviction, testified in gory detail as to his guilt, and argued to the jury that he should be convicted and sentenced to death. In the sentencing phase Goode himself testified, in awful specificity, of his willingness to kill again: "The next statement I have here to prove my guilt, is if Judge John Shearer would authorize this next statement, which I know he won't--I know you won't authorize it--but if the judge would authorize me to murder a little boy ... I am ready right now, I am ready right now to murder another little boy. I am strictly a dangerous, cold-blooded murderer." Prosecutor Joe D’Alessandro said Goode once asked him to visit his jail cell. “I wasn’t there five minutes when he invoked something in me that has never been invoked," he said. “I wanted to hurt him. If I had been there alone, I would have hurt him. That scared me." In pronouncing the sentence on March 21, 1977, the trial court judge said, "If organized society is to exist with the compassion and love that we all espouse, there comes a point when we must terminate that, and there are certain cases and certain times when we can no longer help, we can no longer rehabilitate and there are certain people, and Arthur Goode is one of them, that's actions demand that society respond and all we can do is exterminate. Philosophically I believe that in certain limited instances we should do that. In this particular case that is my opinion, and that is my order, and the only answer I know that will once and for all guarantee society, at least as far as it relates to this man, is that he will never again kill, maim, torture or harm another human being. You have violated the laws, you have had your trial and I am convinced that the punishment is just and proper, and truthfully, may God have mercy on your soul." Goode was known as the "most hated man on the row." Other inmates threw things at him and even ministers avoided contact with him. In 1984, a reporter from Baltimore interviewed Goode extensively. During the interview, Goode said, "There's nothing wrong with me. It's the damn people in society who are prejudiced against pedophilia. There's every reason in the world why I want to be executed. Of course, that's the last thing I really want because I'd like to be on the street doing sex with young boys. What I want to do is get a legal way to marry a boy. Society doesn't have the right to get into my business." He also said, "Kenny Dawson, I wish I hadn't killed him. He was one of the nicest kids I ever met." When asked later if he felt guilt about killing the boys, Goode said, "Yeah, I do. You see, I loved the kids. That's one thing I hate to do, but it's my way to protest. I feel proud I killed those two kids knowing that society will never let me have sex with kids again. At least I can pay them back." Every line of questioning on other topics was almost instantly turned back to pedophilia by Goode. "I like children in general, be friends with them. I'm like a clown. I'd like to be a scoutmaster. People don't understand pedophilia. In other words, there's going to be more kids missing and killed until society understands and possibly considers pedophilia. In the future they're going to have to do something. People better start considering all sorts of life, not just being selfish on normal sex. They need to understand what it is, not that they're going to like it, but they've got to accept it and understand it. Somehow they must legalize it in certain ways or their kids will be raped or molested. People are responsible for their own kids." He talked about assaulting a 13-year-old boy in Baltimore. "I lured a 13-year-old boy in the woods in Dundalk area and I had sex with him and kept all his clothes. They found him, some motorist saw him coming out of the woods with no clothes on. I had actually tried to kill him. I gave him some Dramamine. That was before I knew anything about strangling. The thing that was funny is that he came out of the woods with no clothes on." Eight years after Jason's murder, Goode was executed in the electric chair. Goode cried as he made his final statement. "I want to apologize to my parents. I have remorse for the two boys I murdered. But it's difficult for me to show it."

On the evening of November 4, 1977, David LeBlanc, age sixteen, and Loretta Ann Bourque, age eighteen, attended a high school football game. Later that evening, the couple parked in a remote area of St. Martin Parish. At approximately 1:00 am, Elmo Patrick Sonnier and his brother, Eddie James Sonnier, who were rabbit hunting together, came across the couple's car. Using a badge one of the brothers had obtained while working as a security guard and armed with 22-caliber rifles, the two posed as police officers and approached and entered the car. The victims were informed that they were trespassing and that they would have to be brought to the landowner to determine if the landowner desired to press charges. At this time the driver's licenses of both victims were confiscated. David and Loretta were then handcuffed and placed in the back seat of their own car. The Sonnier brothers left their car behind and drove the couple twenty-one miles to a remote oilfield located in Iberia Parish, an area known to Elmo Sonnier. Once at the oilfield, both victims were removed from the car. David LeBlanc was taken into the woods and handcuffed to a tree. Loretta Bourque was taken a short distance away and raped by Elmo Sonnier. She then agreed to have intercourse with Eddie Sonnier in exchange for the couple's safe release. Upon completion of the rapes, the two youngsters were unhandcuffed and brought back toward the road where the car was parked. At that point, Elmo Sonnier told his brother they could not let the couple go because if the youngsters talked, it would mean he (Elmo) would have to go back to Angola. David LeBlanc and Loretta Bourque were then forced to lie side by side, face down, and were each shot three times at close range in the back of the head. Eddie Sonnier testified that he held a flashlight while his brother shot the youngsters with a 22-caliber rifle. He further related that Bourque began to cry when Elmo Sonnier fired a first shot at her which missed. He then fired a second shot which succeeded in striking Bourque in the back of the head. The third shot likewise struck LeBlanc in the back of the head. Each victim was then shot two additional times. At the trial, expert testimony indicated that any one of the shots would have resulted in instantaneous death to the victims. The brothers then drove the victims' vehicle back to the original site where the couple was first accosted in order to pick up their own car. Finding their car with a flat tire, they used a jack from the LeBlanc vehicle to make the change. The jack was later seized by police from the trunk of the assailants' car. The brothers then destroyed the victims' driver's licenses and the following day buried the rifles in another remote area. Investigation also revealed that thirty or forty dollars which was in the possession of the murdered couple prior to the abduction could not be accounted for. Elmo Sonnier was arrested on December 5, 1977. He was advised of his rights and taken to the Sheriff's Office in New Iberia. While there, he made a free and voluntary confession which was transcribed by one of the police officers who was present. The statement was then read and signed by Sonnier. He was then routinely transferred to a parish prison in an adjacent parish. While enroute, he made another statement to the officers who were transporting him. The following day he made a third confession which was taped. All three statements indicated that Sonnier had participated in the abduction of the victims and had shot them. The police later recovered the two rifles which belonged to the brothers. Ballistics tests indicated that one of the bullets taken from one of the victim's head and four brass casings found by the police at the scene of the crime had positively been fired from the rifle which belonged to Elmo Sonnier. Because of excessive damage, the other five bullets that were recovered could only be identified as having been fired from the same model, brand and caliber rifle as that belonging to Sonnier. The handcuffs used in the abduction were later recovered from Elmo Sonnier's bedroom. The State also produced a witness who testified that he had seen Sonnier's blue 1961 Dart at the place where the abduction occurred during the early morning hours of November 5, 1977. The brothers were jointly indicted on two counts of first degree murder by the grand jury of Iberia Parish. On January 19, 1978, Elmo Sonnier was arraigned and pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. I.Q. tests indicated a verbal score of dull-normal range (84), a performance score in the average range (98) and a full scale I.Q. in the average range (90). No neurological impairment was noted. Other tests indicated that Sonnier had contact with reality and there were indications of a potential for above average creativity and intelligence. Sonnier's criminal record reveals five arrests as a juvenile: disturbance; simple burglary and simple criminal damage; simple burglary; fight; juvenile trouble. His adult record includes an attempted theft of a boat for which he was released. He was convicted on two counts of auto theft in 1968 and sentenced to four and three years at hard labor. (The sentences ran concurrently.) He was paroled in 1970. On July 7, 1970, he was arrested on a charge of theft by false pretenses but the case was dismissed. In November of 1970, he was arrested and charged with the theft of a shotgun and a television which resulted in his parole being revoked. During the period he was on parole, he was in trouble for non-support, and changing jobs and residences. Sonnier served out his term at Angola and was discharged on March 10, 1972. The state first prosecuted Elmo Patrick Sonnier and obtained convictions of first degree murder and death sentences, based primarily on Sonnier's confessions and his brother's testimony, which, contrary to Elmo Patrick Sonnier's trial testimony, depicted Elmo as the instigator and the victims' actual executioner. The state next prosecuted the younger brother, Eddie James Sonnier and was again successful in obtaining convictions and death penalties. However, both brothers' death penalties were reversed on appeal: Elmo Patrick Sonnier's because of a procedural error, which required that his case be remanded for a new sentencing proceeding. Eddie James Sonnier's because the death penalty was excessive in view of his subsidiary role in the crimes, requiring reduction of his sentences to life imprisonment without parole. At Elmo's second penalty hearing, on remand, his brother Eddie, no longer exposed to the death penalty, dramatically changed his story to coincide with Elmo's testimony. Eddie recanted his previous testimony and claimed that he, instead of Elmo, pulled the trigger of the murder weapon and played the dominant role throughout the criminal episode. The prosecution, however, effectively used the brothers' confessions and Eddie's previous trial testimony to challenge their credibility. Consequently, the jury's threshold question was whether Elmo Patrick Sonnier was the principal malefactor or a compliant follower in the course of criminal conduct. An appellate court found that "the jury's apparent conclusion that Elmo Patrick Sonnier was primarily responsible for the murders and should be sentenced to death is warranted by the record."  

In the course of a robbery at the victim's home on November 12, 1973, James Adams beat 61-year-old Edgar Rollins Brown senseless with a fireplace poker. The Brown family was a longtime fixture in the Ft. Pierce community, with a long history of law enforcement. Born in 1912 as one of twelve children, Edgar was a former chief sheriff's deputy and his brother Benjamin was county sheriff. A horse breeder and cattle rancher, Edgar was known to sometimes carry large amounts of cash in his pockets. In contrast, James Adams had at least three previous convictions in Tennessee, including assault and battery in 1955, larceny in 1957 and, the most serious, a conviction for rape in 1962. The rape conviction resulted in a sentence of 99 years in prison from which he escaped in January 1973. Adams fled to Fort Pierce, Florida, got married and worked in construction. On the morning of the crime, Adams's did not go to work. He later claimed to have been playing cards. However, while his alibi witness at first supported his claims, she later said that he did not arrive at her apartment until after 11 am, at least 30 minutes after the attack had taken place. Adams's brown Rambler car had been seen traveling to and from the victim's house. Edgar Brown returned home to retrieve a jacket and found the car parked in his driveway. He entered his home and confronted the intruder who was ransacking the house. Adams grabbed a fireplace poker and bludgeoned Edgar, who tried to protect himself from the blows. Edgar's nephew found his badly injured uncle later that day. Edgar's wife of 40 years arrived before the ambulance, and tried in vain to save her husband's life. Edgar died in Martin Memorial Hospital the following day. An all points bulletin was issued for the brown Rambler, and it was found in a body shop awaiting a paint job to change its color. Adams had given a different last name at the body shop. Adams was separated from his wife at the time of the murder because of his relationship with a sixteen-year old girl. He was arrested driving his wife's Oldsmobile car and had $185 in his pocket, a rare circumstance for Adams. One of the bills had a bloodstain on it, which matched Edgar's blood type. In the trunk of his wife's car, police discovered some damning evidence, including jewelry and a pair of glasses that belonged to Edgar. In addition, they found bloodstained clothing which also matched Edgar's blood type. "It's about as strong a circumstantial case as one could conceive," Edgar "Al" Brown, the victim's son, said many years after the murder. "I do feel very strongly that he committed the crime." A Florida jury found Adams guilty of murder and recommended the death penalty, which the trial judge imposed. Adams was executed on May 10, 1984. 

At 6:15 am on October 22, 1976, James Grills entered a Majik Market in Gainesville, Florida and discovered the dead body of Judith Ann Carter, the 34-year-old store clerk. Judith, a mother of 4 children aged 1 to 11, had been shot five times, and the Majik Market apparently had been robbed of beer, chips and $45. Police, summoned to the scene, learned from two women who were the last known customers to enter the store that a young male patron had remained in the Majik Market after they left at approximately 1:30 am earlier that day. Ninety minutes after the women had left the store, at 3:00 am, a young man with a hand gun had robbed an 8 Days Inn motel in Gainesville. Based on information provided by the motel clerk and the two women, the police prepared two composite sketches and a written description of a single suspect. The following afternoon an Alachua County deputy sheriff stopped a car in which the passenger, Shriner, resembled the suspect's description. The officer who stopped Shriner testified that he bore a "striking resemblance" to the suspect described in the police bulletin and the officer had noticed him taking things to a dump. After advising Shriner of his Miranda rights and briefly questioning him, the deputy took Shriner down to the sheriff's office, where questioning continued with Shriner's apparent permission following another set of Miranda warnings. Shriner and the couple in whose home (near the Majik Market) he lived consented to a search of the premises where the police discovered a .38 caliber revolver and cartridges. When law enforcement officers matched the gun to projectiles found in the Majik Market, they took Shriner to the Gainesville Police Department. A ballistics expert identified the gun found in Shriner's residence as the murder weapon. After Shriner signed a written waiver following further Miranda warnings, questioning began at 9:00 pm on October 23. Shriner initially confessed to only the motel robbery and gave inconsistent statements about his involvement in the murder. At 2:00 am, however, he finally confessed to the murder. At trial, the 8 Days Inn motel night clerk identified Shriner as the robber and testified that the gun used by the robber closely resembled the murder weapon. When filling out the room card, Shriner had used his own address from Arizona. An Alachua County jury found Shriner guilty of first degree murder and unanimously recommended the death penalty. The trial judge followed the jury's recommendation.

On April 12, 1976, Clifford Floyd, the victim, was making his regular Monday afternoon rounds through the Fowlstown area of Bainbridge, Georgia, collecting weekly insurance premiums. Five weeks earlier, Joseph Thomas and Ivon Ray Stanley had been overheard talking about robbing the insurance man and Baptist deacon because they needed some money. About one month prior to the murder they were again overheard by a different person discussing the planned robbery. The two agreed that after the robbery they would "have to get rid of him because he will tell who we are." Subsequent events are described from Thomas' statements. On April 12, Clifford Floyd came by Thomas' house to collect a premium. When he left, Thomas sent a friend over to Stanley's house "to tell Ivon to come over to my house." Stanley "came straight on over. And I told him, I asked him, I said 'you can get the insurance man if you want him ....'" Stanley ran from Thomas' house and caught up with Floyd. On a pretext he persuaded Floyd to return to the Thomas residence. Stanley was armed with a .22 caliber pistol which Thomas had just given him. When Thomas came out of the house, Stanley had already pulled the gun on Floyd, emptied his pockets and told him not to move and not to say anything. Stanley, armed with the pistol, and Thomas, carrying a hammer, forced Floyd to go with them to the woods near the Thomas house. As they were walking, Floyd and Thomas exchanged some words. Angered, Thomas struck Floyd on the forehead with the hammer. Thomas walked back up to the hog pens near his house, got a length of rope, and returned to the woods where the other two were. Again leaving Stanley and Floyd alone, Thomas went back to where Floyd had parked his car and drove it away in search of a hiding place. He rifled the car, broke into the glove compartment and removed a .22 caliber pistol. Leaving the car he walked back to where he had left the other two men. When Thomas returned, he found Floyd tied to a tree. Stanley said, "You know, you know, we gonna have to, you know he knows." Thomas responded, "Yeah." "You know, we are gonna have to get rid of him," said Stanley. Thomas said nothing, then went back to his house, got his mother's shovel and returned. With the shovel, Thomas began digging a shallow grave perhaps 11 inches in depth. Tiring, he gave the shovel to Stanley who finished "digging that insurance man's grave." When they had completed the grave, Stanley went over and untied Floyd from the tree but left his hands bound. Considerable blood was flowing from Floyd's forehead. Thomas ripped part of the shirt from the man's back and stuffed it into his mouth to silence him. As they approached the grave, Stanley handed the gun to Thomas and told him, "You gonna do the rest ..." Taking the gun, Thomas turned his head away and fired five times at Floyd's head. Stanley then took the shovel that had been used to dig the grave and hit Floyd with it twice. He handed the shovel to Thomas who beat the man with the shovel. He hit him once in the stomach, twice in the head and one time in the chest. Floyd was still alive. Stanley then began to shovel dirt over the lower part of Floyd's body. When he had partially buried the man, he handed the shovel to Thomas who then began to shovel dirt over Floyd's head. Through all of this, Floyd was not only struggling for breath but, as the dirt began to cover his head, he attempted to say something. Twice, according to Thomas, the insurance man had pleaded for his life. When Floyd, still breathing, was completely covered in his shallow grave, the two men left, Thomas returning to his home. At around 6 p.m. as Thomas was finishing supper, Stanley came over to his house and said that they had "better go move that car." They drove the car down an old logging road where they eventually bogged down. The car was ultimately discovered by law enforcement officials. At the time of Floyd's last known collection he would have collected approximately $234. Beginning the next day, four anonymous telephone calls were made to police telling them where they could find the car and giving misleading information about the victim. Through a telephone tap, one of these calls was traced to Thomas' home. When police arrived, he was the only one at home. He subsequently admitted making the call. An autopsy, performed by James Dawson, Assistant Director of the Georgia Crime Laboratory, disclosed a gunshot wound through the victim's upper lip; numerous lacerations to the scalp, head, and body, apparently inflicted by the leading edge of a shovel; a depressed skull fracture pushed into the brain consistent with a blow from a hammer; brain hemorrhage; a broken sternum; and "a rather striking accumulation of both blood and dirt which was found in the bronchi of both lungs, scattered up and down the trachea and in the larynx and also in the upper-most part of the stomach ..." Based upon the autopsy, death was caused by swallowing a mixture of blood and dirt, vomiting it up, then inhaling the regurgitated mixture into the lungs. In sum, Clifford Floyd either strangled or suffocated on his own blood within about thirty minutes as he lay buried in the shallow grave. Thomas was arrested two days after the murder and confessed in intricate detail to this crime. His confession was tape-recorded seven days after the murder and was introduced at the trial. He took the stand and testified that he had no memory of the incident after ingesting two pills given or sold to him by "some dude" in Macon. He also claimed no memory of the telephone calls or of the confession given seven days later.