The state Supreme Court Friday threw out the conviction and death sentence of a man who rode a bicycle to the house of a Macon County bank vice president and killed him in 1999. The court ruled Artemus Rick Walker was mentally ill and incompetent of being tried for murder.
Walker will not be released. Because of the court’s decision he will be retried after a competency hearing.
The unanimous court decision noted the findings of an expert who said Walker began to show delusional and psychotic behavior when he was 18 or 19. Walker was 33 when bank executive Lynwood Ray Gresham was stabbed to death in his yard.
According to testimony, Walker devised a plan to rob Gresham, whose bank was next door to the gas station Walker owned, and Walker recruited a new employee at his station to help him. Walker and Gary Lee Griffin rode bikes to the bank executive’s house on May 12, 1999, planning to rob and kill Gresham.
But once at the Gresham house, Griffin refused to help Walker as he struggled with Gresham. Walker stabbed Gresham 12 times in the chest and back and then dragged the bank vice president to some bushes on the side of the house, where he died.
The two men rode away on their bikes when Gresham’s daughter yelled through the barricaded door that she had a gun.
Griffin was arrested nearby after he crashed his bike. Police found Walker a few hours later, hiding in some woods. Gresham’s blood was on his clothes and he had Gresham’s house keys.
Walker was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death plus a life term and 35 years in prison. Griffin is serving life in prison.
It was during a hearing on his appeal that details were offered about Walker’s mental illness.
Several witnesses said Walker’s behavior became psychotic in his late teens. He was obsessed with religion. Walker would fast for 40 days at a time and slip notes under the door when he wanted his family to bring him honey, milk or water, which was all he consumed.
His brother testified that Walker began wearing a robe to church and carrying a tall wooden staff.
A church member offered examples of his deteriorating condition. She testified Walker became angry and threatening and started stalking her and insisting that God had chosen her to be his wife.
The bishop at the church said Walker once told the congregation that God had told him that the bishop “was a false prophet and … my wife was the witch of Hindu.” The bishop said Walker claimed God told him to take over control of the church.
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