DEL.ICIO.US
Ben Gray / AJC
Marsinah Johnson, 13, was tortured and shot to death in 1993, her body found along Atlanta railroad tracks. The leader in the killing, Ahmond Dunnigan, was eligible for execution but twice managed to escape the death penalty. |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
DAY TWO
A death case derailed
Gang leader Ahmond Dunnigan directed two of the most horrendous murders imaginable, yet managed to avoid the death penalty — twice.
By HEATHER VOGELL and BILL RANKIN
Marsinah Johnson set a goal for September 1993 in her day planner, tracing it in bubbly letters: Celebrate my birthday well.
She never had the chance. Johnson's turbulent life would end on a forlorn stretch of Atlanta railroad tracks four months before she could turn 14.
She died at the command of Ahmond Dunnigan, a baby-faced gang leader who presided over the gruesome torture-murders of Johnson and another teenage girl that year.
Dunnigan called his gang "Doom."
The crimes made a homicide detective cry on the witness stand. They qualified for Georgia's death penalty nine ways.
But a cascade of setbacks in Dunnigan's prosecution helped him escape execution not once, but twice.
If the death penalty was meant for the worst of the worst killers, how did it fail to snare Dunnigan?
The odds were in his favor: Even when confronted with some of Georgia's most notorious killings, DeKalb and Fulton prosecutors were among the least likely to secure a death sentence, a Journal-Constitution investigation found.
DeKalb sent no killer to death row from 1995 through 2004, and Fulton sent just two. The counties were home to a quarter of all death-eligible crimes in the state over the decade.
 |
| Ahmond Dunnigan |
 Ben Gray/AJC |
| A court document from a box of evidence from the murder case of Ahmond Dunnigan, who avoided the death penalty for leading the torture-murders of two girls. |
Stunning crimes
When Johnson didn't come home on the bus one spring afternoon, her mother feared she'd run away again. She had.
Johnson was big for her age and hung around older kids. She wanted desperately to fit in. She went by "Hellraiser," joined a gang and got arrested for breaking into cars and houses.
The night of May 7, Johnson was visiting an apartment near the Decatur square when Dunnigan and his friends arrived.
He was there to punish Johnson. He believed, prosecutors later said, that she'd either tried to leave the gang or turned other members in to police.
Dunnigan and others beat her until she bled and burned her thighs with a red-hot knife and coat hanger.
At one point, he said he'd let her live if she gave him her soul. She agreed. He told her to blow into a peanut-butter jar and replaced the cap. "Now I own you and your soul," he said.
They blindfolded her and drove her to train tracks, forcing her to perform oral sex on the way. She begged to go home to her mother.
Dunnigan handed a gun to fellow gang member Samuel Parham. After Parham shot her, co-defendants said, Dunnigan asked whether she was dead. The two returned to the tracks. Another shot rang out.
A train hit her body, dragging it 300 feet.
Three months later, a suspect led police to a kudzu patch in south Fulton County and the body of another young girl who had done the gang wrong.
Nikki Waller, 15, was a friend of Johnson's and a runaway, too. She had been accused of taking a gang member's clothes.
At least nine people tortured Waller over three days. She was beaten and forced to perform oral sex. Dunnigan made her drink a mixture of salt and bleach, shocked her with a car battery, choked her with an electric cord until it broke, set her on fire and stabbed her.
She begged them to kill her and, in a final act, they drowned her in a cooler filled with water. Dunnigan held her head, four co-defendants said later.
"You're dead," he declared. "Tell God that Doom sent you."
Thirteen participants told police that Dunnigan, a stocky security guard, was their leader. Only he was implicated in both deaths.
That summer, Dunnigan was also arrested for raping a woman in a vacant apartment. He said it was his "hurricane season," when he did whatever he pleased to people. He said he knew a thousand ways to torture someone without killing them.
More on ajc.com
- DeKALB COUNTY (09/23/2007)
- FULTON COUNTY (09/23/2007)
- A DEATH CASE DERAILED (09/23/2007)
- Testimony ends in 25-year-old KFC murders in Texas (09/29/2008)
- Aggravated murder charges filed in Wash. shootings (09/29/2008)
- 'I wanted to disarm him' (09/29/2008)
- Davis case decision expected by Oct. 6 (09/29/2008)
- Troy Davis case decision expected by Oct. 6 (09/28/2008)
- Sept. 21-27: METRO WEEK IN REVIEW (09/28/2008)
- Ark. man convicted of killing 3 boys takes stand (09/25/2008)
Inside AJC.COM
Beyonce concert review
Watch a video of fans re-enacting their favorite parts of Beyonce's Atlanta concert.
Best of Luckovich: June
Vote for your favorite Mike Luckovich editorial cartoons on local new, politics, celebrities and more!
Ingenuity + yard = fun
Boredom and lack of money are the mothers of invention when it comes to lawn games such as lawn Scrabble.
Romantic vacation tales
Our new travel story contest centers on your most romantic vacation tales. Tell us, lovers.
Private Quarters Splurge
Husband and wife architects created a modern house that's still warm and inviting.
Search
Do Good Locally » Find nonprofit causes near you
Services » Find the right people for the job
We want to know what you think
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
News Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Comments
By neenee
Jun 30, 2009 12:23 AM | Link to this
If he did it he needs to suffer the same death not only him but all involved
By KENYA DUNNIGAN WIFE
Jun 27, 2009 1:03 AM | Link to this
THIS IS MRS.AHMOND DUNNIGAN I AM RESPONDING TO THE STUPID DUMB AS COMMENT THAT WAS MADE BY AHMONDS CHILDREN BABYMAMA OR HIS SISTER OR MOTHER. BUT WHO EVER WROTE IT LET ME SAY THIS ONE TIME AND ONE MUTHA ******* TIME ONLY, I AM NOT NOW THEN OR WILL I EVER BE A DUMB BROAD KEEP ALL REFERENCES TO ME AND MY NAME OUT OF YOUR ******* MOUTH. ARE YOU JUST JEALOUS THAT HE MARRIED ME ON NOT YOUR ***** ASSES FOR HIS NO HIGH SCHOOL FINISHING HOUSEFUL OF CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT DADDIES AND YOUR CHILDREN IN DEFACS CUSTODY.WHOEVER SAID THIS CAN KISS MY HIGH YELLOW FAT *** AND SUCK MY ***** TIL IT BLEED, BE MAN OR WOMAN ENOUGH TO CONFRONT ME ABOUT BEING MARRIED TO AHMOND BECAUSE ON THIS IS FOR SURE THE DAY HE DIE YOU WILL GET NOTHING ALL HE HAS OBTAINED WHILE WE HAVE BEEN MARRIED GOES TO ME SO AS I SAID ONCE AGAIN KEEP MY MUTHAFUCKING NAME AND ALL REFERENCES ABOUT MRS. KENYA N.DUNNIGAN-ALI OUT OF YOUR PUNK ***** *** HATING LIPS WHOEVER YOU ARE WHO WROTE THIS STUPID ********. AND FOR THOSE WHO SAID AHMOND SHOULD BE MADE TO DRINK BLEACH AND GET THE CHAIR ***** **** WAS YOU THERE? THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH BITCHES NOW ALWAYS IN SOMEBODY ELSES BUSINESS GO GET SOME OF YOUR OWN. MRS. AHMOND S. DUNNIGAN
By bhqv rndtiam
Nov 18, 2008 4:12 AM | Link to this
qiapedtkx lvtozpq tkwrj oiwxjzpq fgepk lfnsui tpzjqydh
By bhqv rndtiam
Nov 18, 2008 4:12 AM | Link to this
qiapedtkx lvtozpq tkwrj oiwxjzpq fgepk lfnsui tpzjqydh
By bhqv rndtiam
Nov 18, 2008 4:11 AM | Link to this
qiapedtkx lvtozpq tkwrj oiwxjzpq fgepk lfnsui tpzjqydh
By bhqv rndtiam
Nov 18, 2008 4:10 AM | Link to this
qiapedtkx lvtozpq tkwrj oiwxjzpq fgepk lfnsui tpzjqydh
By fee
May 4, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
I didn't know anyone from the dooms gang until I visited a friend in prison many years ago. They had a young girl there by the name kareema hanifa she was 14 or 15 at the time of the crime but was of age when she I visited my friend. She had left the juvi system and entered in adult prison. She received 2 life sentencing gor kidnapping the lil girl and murder. That gang ruined many lives. Young lives. She looked like a normal young lady. But my friend was friends with her and she told my friend **** it I got 2 life sentences what else could they do to me. I was like nothing they have already done it. She
died n 3 days you have the rest of your life to slowly die. Die n slowly. This was 15 years ago and its still fresh in our hearts. May God bless all the Devils Rejects
By fee
May 4, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
I didn't know anyone from the dooms gang until I visited a friend in prison many years ago. They had a young girl there by the name kareema hanifa she was 14 or 15 at the time of the crime but was of age when she I visited my friend. She had left the juvi system and entered in adult prison. She received 2 life sentencing gor kidnapping the lil girl and murder. That gang ruined many lives. Young lives. She looked like a normal young lady. But my friend was friends with her and she told my friend **** it I got 2 life sentences what else could they do to me. I was like nothing they have already done it. She died n 3 days you have the rest of your life to slowly die. Die n slowly. This was 15 years ago and its still fresh in our hearts. May God bless all the Devils Rejects
By Truth
May 4, 2008 7:24 AM | Link to this
It's amazing 15 years later and we're still talking about this it is truly sad and horrific what happened to these young ladies and I use the term lightly. I knew everyone of the people involved in both cases as well as both the girls they have even slept on my couch when they ran away from home le't stop for a minute and ask ourselves what was so wrong at home. One had a crack head for mother or so she claimed that sold her from time to time for crack, the other mother wanted to be free and gave her to another to raise or so she says, don't get me wrong i don't make light of what happened or nor do i feel that it should have happened i'm just possing questions. I have transcripts from both cases and i pose the question how does 1 person with no weapon at all get a collective of 15 or so people in both cases to do what he says without threatening them, no DNA no form of forensics linked Dunnigan to any wrong doing it was the people who he thought actually liked him. Don't get it twisted for the smart *** that reads this and want to blame crank on my statement you are so wrong i was around then and had and still do have a mind of my own i was a leader not a follower and secure in my skin.
By NO NAME
Apr 21, 2008 7:15 PM | Link to this
The dumb *** bastard should never be set free he needs to roit behind bars better yet torcher him the way he did those poor young girls I say make him drink bleach. The family of the poor young girls are still suffering he needs the CHAIR!!!!!!! Give him the CHAIR!!!!!!!!!!
[1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10] next
Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F, except on Tuesday when it's open until 9 p.m.
Post a comment
*HTML not allowed in comments. Your e-mail address is required.
Request a comment be removed