[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- ALABAMA

[Joerg Sommer]

death penalty news

September 23, 2005


ALABAMA --- execution

Ala. Man Executed for Killing Family of 3

A man convicted of killing a family of three and driving off in their 
vintage sports car was executed by injection Thursday.

John W. Peoples Jr., 48, died at 6:27 p.m. at Holman Prison near 
Atmore, prison officials said.

Peoples was convicted in 1983 in the killing of Pell City businessman 
Paul G. Franklin, his wife, Judy Choron Franklin, both 34, and their 
10-year-old son, Paul.

Peoples did not look at or offer an apology to relatives of the 
Franklins, but thanked his own family for their support.

The Franklins' relatives said they were relieved that Peoples was 
dead, but were surprised at his apparent lack of remorse.

"Seemed a lot easier on him the way he died versus the way they 
died," said Bill Choron, the slain woman's brother.

The execution was carried out after the Supreme Court denied Peoples' 
request for a delay and Gov. Bob Riley turned down his bid for clemency.

Peoples argued in his plea that he had a right to die by 
electrocution, as his original death sentence stipulated, instead of 
lethal injection, a method Alabama adopted beginning in 2002.

The state, in its response to the Supreme Court, said Peoples missed 
the deadline to request the electric chair.

The boy and his mother were beaten to death with a rifle, but the 
father's body was too decomposed by the time he was found for 
investigators to determine the cause of death.

Prosecutors say Peoples killed the three because he wanted their 1968 
red Corvette, and he was arrested after attempting to sell the car 
shortly after the killings.

Peoples' cousin, Timothy Gooden, is serving a life sentence in the 
case. He allegedly was with Peoples the night of the slayings.

John W. Peoples Jr. becomes the 4th inmate executed in Alabama this 
year and the 34th since the state resumed capital punishment on April 22, 1983.

He is the 39th person put to death nationwide in 2005 and the 983rd 
overall since 1977.

(source: AP / Tuscaloosa News & Joerg Sommer)





Alabama inmates executed since death penalty reinstated

By The Associated Press

Condemned inmates executed in Alabama, and date of death, since the 
state restored its capital punishment law in the mid-1970s:

John Louis Evans III, April 22, 1983

Arthur L. Jones, March 20, 1986

Wayne Eugene Ritter, Aug. 28, 1987

Michael Lindsey, May 26, 1989

Horace Dunkins, July 14, 1989

Herbert Richardson, Aug. 18, 1989

Arthur J. Julius, Nov. 17, 1989

Wallace Norrell Thomas, July 13, 1990

Larry G. Heath, March 20, 1992

Cornelius Singleton, Nov. 20, 1992

Willie Clisby, April 28, 1995

Varnall Weeks, May 12, 1995

Edward Horsley, Feb. 16, 1996

Billy Wayne Waldrop, Jan. 10, 1997

Walter Hill, May 2, 1997

Henry Francis Hays, June 6, 1997

Steven Allen Thompson, May 8, 1998

Brian Keith Baldwin, June 18, 1999

Victor Kennedy, Aug. 6, 1999

David Ray Duren, Jan. 7, 2000

Freddie Lee Wright, March 3, 2000

Robert Lee Tarver Jr., April 14, 2000

Pernell Ford, June 2, 2000

Lynda Lyon Block, May 10, 2002

Anthony Keith Johnson, Dec. 12, 2002

Michael Eugene Thompson, March 13, 2003

Gary L. Brown, April 24, 2003

Tommy J. Fortenberry, Aug. 7, 2003

James B. Hubbard, Aug. 5, 2004

David Kevin Hocker, Sept. 30, 2004

Mario Centobie, April 28, 2005

Jerry Paul Henderson, June 2, 2005

George Sibley Jr. Aug. 4, 2005

John W. Peoples Jr. Sept. 22, 2005

(source: Alabama Department of Corrections / Tuscaloosa News)