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)
