Melbert Ray Ford, who murdered his former girlfriend and the woman's 11-year-old niece in 1986, was executed on Wednesday night at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson, 50 miles south of Atlanta.
Ford, 49, became the 47th person Georgia has executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973, the 24th by lethal injection.
The man was put to death for killing Martha Chapman Matich and her niece, Lisa Chapman, on March 6,1986, in an act of revenge at a Newton County grocery store that employed Matich.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected appeals to spare the man's life. The decision was unanimous, though the justices didn't offer a reason. Ford's lawyers in filings argued there were more heinous murders that didn't result in the death sentence, and that this was "cruel and unusual punishment" to execute him so long after the crime.
At 7:27 p.m., Ford was administered a three-drug cocktail. He supposedly spent his final hours visiting with relatives and friends. He had requested a final meal of fried fish and shrimp, a baked potato, salad, boiled corn, ice cream, cheesecake and soda.
Ford had harassed his former girlfriend for weeks after their relationship had ended. Two weeks prior to the shootings, according to court testimony, Ford told a friend he was going to rob the store and he "was going to blow her ... brains out.”
After having trouble finding a ride to the store, Ford convinced Roger Turner, an unemployed man, to drive him there after they had consumed several alcoholic drinks and Turner had been promised $8,000.
The two arrived at the store after closing. Ford gained entry by shooting away the lower half of the locked and barred glass door.
Waiting in the car, Turner told police he heard screams and gunshots moments before Ford ran from the store with a bag of money.
Responding to an alarm, Newton County deputies found Matich shot three times and lying dead behind the counter. The girl was discovered in the bathroom, still alive but shot in the head, and she later died.
Ford, then 25, and Turner, 19, were arrested the next day. Turner confessed and was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty; he was paroled in 1991.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
