| September 13, 1597 |
Juanillo and his followers murder Father Pedro de Corpa, a Franciscan monk. (Santo Domingo de Talaje, sometimes referred to as the Tolomato mission or simply, Tolomato, the name of the nearby Guale town)
|
| January 19, 1735 |
Alice Riley is hanged for the murder of William Wise. She is the first person to be hanged in the colony of Georgia. |
| March 31, 1774 |
Head Turkey, a Creek on the way to Savannah to negotiate a peace treaty is murdered near Augusta by Thomas Fee. Fee would later escape jail, but Royal governor Wright's offer of a $100 reward appeases the Creek
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City of Savannah, Georgia |
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James Wright |
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Creek Indians |
| May 13, 1806 |
Polly Barclay, who had earlier been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to hang, died on the gallows in Washington, Georgia
|
| March 26, 1812 |
Murder of Thomas Meredith
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Murder of Thomas Meredith |
| November 30, 1831 |
A white man tries to murder John Ross, leader of the Cherokee Nation
|
| December 15, 1832 |
James Bowman and in his family are killed near Salacoa, Cherokee Nation (now Georgia). The savage murders would be blamed on the Cherokee
|
| July 20, 1879 |
A Morman, Joseph Standing, is murdered on his way to Rome
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| August 6, 1887 |
Just west of Macon, in Bibb County, nine members of Tom Woolfolk's family were murdered with an ax.
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Bibb County, Georgia |
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Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Family murders |
| February 10, 1888 |
Tom Woolfolk is found guilty of murder and sentenced to die
|
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Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Family murders |
| June 3, 1889 |
Tom Woolfolk is again tried for murder
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Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Family murders |
| June 25, 1889 |
A jury again convicts Tom Woolfolk on murder and sentences him to die
|
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Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk Family murders |
| April 26, 1913 |
Mary Phagan is murdered at the National Pencil Company
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Fulton County, Georgia |
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| May 8, 1913 |
Leo Frank and Newt Lee are ordered to be held in the murder of Mary Phagan
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| May 23, 1913 |
Leo Frank is indicted in the murder of Mary Phagan
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| May 28, 1913 |
Jim Conley admits his involvement with the murder. He claims that Leo Frank ordered him to write the murder notes, and that Frank had killed Mary Phagan and had Conley carry her downstairs
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| August 25, 1913 |
Leo Frank is found guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| February 24, 1914 |
Jim Conley, self-professed accomplice to the murder of Mary Phagan, is sentenced to a year of hard labor for his role in the crime.
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| February 6, 1938 |
Reverend Charles Lee, 71-year old rector of Christ Church on St. Simon Island is murdered by a sniper as he sat at his desk in the historic church. |
| July 25, 1946 |
Four blacks, two of whom were female, are pulled from a car in Walton County by a gang of white men. One of the men had been accused of attacking his employer and had just been bailed out of jail. According to testimony, one of the females recognized the attackers. All four were murdered. This incident is commonly called the "Walton County Massacre"
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Walton County, Georgia |
| May 2, 1953 |
Marion Ennis and Pete Bivins are shot and killed. Marion Stembridge, a local storeowner who committed the murders then turns the gun on himself. This incident, which occurred in Milledgeville, became the setting for the book Paris Trout
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| February 18, 1956 |
Dr. Thomas H. Brewer, who help create a Columbus chapter of the NAACP in 1937 and was an important figure in the Primus King case, is murdered by Lucio Flowers, a white policeman. Brewer was shot 7 times in front of his office in Columbus
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The Road to Integration
|
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Columbus, Georgia |
| March 10, 1969 |
James Earl Ray is sentenced for the murder of Martin Luther King. He had entered a guilty plea, waiving his right to trial. He was sentenced to 99 years.
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Martin Luther King
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| May 9, 1970 |
Six African-Americans are killed during riots in Augusta sparked by the apparent torture-murder of Charles Oatman, a learning-impaired black youth, while in custody in the Richmond County (GA) jail. |
| May 10, 1973 |
Richard Miller is abducted in McConnellsburg, PA. He is murdered in Allegheny County, MD.
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Alday family murders
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| January 2, 1974 |
Carl Issacs goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
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Alday family murders
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| January 6, 1974 |
George Dungee goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
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Alday family murders
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| January 14, 1974 |
Wayne Coleman goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
|
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Alday family murders
|
| July 2, 1976 |
In Gregg vs. Georgia the U. S. Supreme Court upholds the death penalty for murder, clarifying an earlier opinion that found the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because of its arbitrary application
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| February 12, 1977 |
The Lover's Lane Murderer strikes again, at West Manor Park in Atlanta. The couple is seriously injured, but live to tell of an attack by a large black male
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| March 12, 1977 |
Lover's Lane murderer attacks a couple in Adams Park. He disappears without a trace and leaves one dead, one injured.
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| September 25, 1977 |
71-year-old Jean Dimenstien is found strangled and assaulted in a sexual manner in her Wynnton (an area of Columbus, Georgia) home. Similar to a murder that had occured 10 days earlier, the elderly women of Columbus had become a target for a serial killer.
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
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Columbus, Georgia |
| October 2, 1977 |
Police arrest Jerome Livas in connection with an assualt and murder of a woman. He is connected to the two Wynnton murders.
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
| October 21, 1977 |
Florence Scheible, almost 90 years old is found murdered and assualted
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
| October 28, 1977 |
74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff is found murdered and assualted in her home.
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
| April 4, 1978 |
Police arrest "Chairman of the Forces of Evil," a white man who had begun killing black women in revenge for the Wynnton Stocking Strangler's murder of white women. The strangler had been identified as being black.
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
| April 19, 1978 |
Janet Cofer, 61, is murdered, final victim of the Wynnton Stocking Strangler, although this would not be known for a number of months
|
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
| July 28, 1978 |
Two black children found murdered in southwest Atlanta begin a killing spree known as the Atlanta Child Murders
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| July 21, 1979 |
Edward Hope Smith is seen for the last time. Unknown at the time, he would become the first of what today is known as the Atlanta Child Murders
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| June 23, 1980 |
Aaron Wyche, 10, is added to the list of Atlanta Child Murders
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| July 10, 1980 |
David and Katie Hardin are murdered at a south Georgia rest stop on I-75 near Lenox
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A killer pays the price |
| August 14, 1980 |
Atlanta Police form a task force to investigate and analyze the evidence in the string of child murders that has occurred in the city
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| November 6, 1980 |
The Attorney General directs the FBI to join the investigation of missing and murdered children in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| January 18, 1981 |
Pvt. Joseph Christopher is arrested at Fort Benning, Georgia and charged in the assault on a black enlisted man. His arrest resulted in Buffalo NY police solving a string of racist murders by Christopher, who was from the Buffalo area. |
| March 13, 1981 |
President Reagan announces additional federal aid for the murdered and missing youth in Atlanta
|
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| April 23, 1981 |
Atlanta Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown clears the man identified by CORE Director Ray Innis as a suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders
|
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| June 12, 1981 |
Chatham County indicts Jim Williams for murder
|
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Chatham County, Georgia |
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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| June 21, 1981 |
Wayne William is arrested, charged with the murders of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Payne, the last of the Atlanta Child Murders
|
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| December 28, 1981 |
Trial begins for Wayne Williams, accused murderer who is charged with committing the Atlanta Child Murders
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Atlanta Child Murders |
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| January 19, 1982 |
Controversial fiber evidence introduced by Lewis Slayton in the Wayne Williams Atlanta Child Murders Trial is ruled admissible by Judge Clarence Cooper. Today this type of evidence is normally admitted. |
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Clarence Cooper |
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| January 25, 1982 |
Judge Clarence Cooper allows testimony linking Wayne Williams to murders other than the two he is charged with. |
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Atlanta Child Murders |
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Clarence Cooper |
| February 27, 1982 |
Wayne Williams found guilty in Atlanta Child murders
|
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Atlanta Child Murders |
| September 17, 1982 |
William Putnam is sentanced to die for the murders of David and Katie Hardin
|
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A killer pays the price |
| October 9, 1982 |
Judy Neelley is arrested at a motel in Murfreesboro, TN. Alvin is arrested a few days later. Mrs. Neelley admitted brutally murdering both Chatman and Millican and shooting an firebombing the homes of the YDC employees.
|
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Judy Neelley - A woman on death row
|
| March 7, 1983 |
Trial begins in Alabama for accused murderer Judy Neelley
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Judy Neelley - A woman on death row
|
| April 18, 1983 |
Judy Neelley is convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Alabama's electric chair
|
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Judy Neelley - A woman on death row
|
| May 3, 1984 |
S. W. A. T. team members surround Carlton Gary, an escapee from the South Carolina prison system, at the Albany, Georgia, Holiday Inn. He was captured alive. While in Georgia's custody, he is linked to the murders of three of the Wynnton Stock Strangler's murders.
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Wynnton Stocking Strangler |
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Albany, Georgia |
| December 9, 1985 |
3 judge panel finds that pretrial publicity about the Alday family murders made a fair trial virtually impossible in Seminole County
|
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Alday family murders
|
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Seminole County, Georgia |
| March 11, 1986 |
Georgia pardons Leo Frank, not because of new evidence in the murder of Mary Phagan, but because the state failed to provide protection while Frank was in custody.
|
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Leo Frank and the murder of Mary Phagan |
| June 3, 1986 |
Supreme Court orders a new trial in the Alday family murders
|
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Alday family murders
|
| September 9, 1988 |
Murder One, a movie based on the Alday family murders starring Henry Thomas and James Wilder, shot almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, opens to mixed reviews
|
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Alday family murders
|
| December 23, 1992 |
Eddie Lawrence and Toozdae Rower are indicted on murder charges in the death of Sara Tokars
|
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Fred Tokars orders a 'hit' on his wife |
| January 1, 1994 |
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a story about Jim Williams of Savannah, who was tried four times (and convicted three times) for the murder of Danny Hansford, is published.
|
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City of Savannah, Georgia |
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
|
| June 17, 1994 |
Eddie Lawrence pleads guilty in the murder of Sara Tokars
|
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Fred Tokars orders a 'hit' on his wife |
| March 8, 1997 |
Fred Tokars is convicted of murder in the death of his wife, Sara
|
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Fred Tokars orders a 'hit' on his wife |
| April 28, 1998 |
James Sullivan charged with arranging the murder of his wife Lita. |
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James Sullivan and the murder of Lita Sullivan |
| January 15, 1999 |
Judy Neelley, convicted of the brutal murders of two Georgia teenagers has her death sentance commuted by the Governor of Alabama
|
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Judy Neelley - A woman on death row
|
| December 15, 2000 |
DeKalb County sheriff-elect Derwin Brown murdered in his driveway
|
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Derwin Brown murdered |
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DeKalb County, Georgia |
| September 25, 2001 |
Unsolved Mysteries airs James Sullivan's picture during a show on the murder of his wife, Lita. |
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James Sullivan and the murder of Lita Sullivan |
| November 30, 2001 |
Former Dekalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey and two others are charged in the murder of Derwin Brown, who had been elected to replace Dorsey as sheriff.
|
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Derwin Brown murdered |
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DeKalb County, Georgia |
| March 11, 2002 |
H. Rap Brown, former leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was convicted of murdering Fulton County Sheriff Ricky Kinchen as Kinchen and another deputy attempted to serve a warrant.
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Fulton County, Georgia |
| April 23, 2002 |
Change of venue from Dekalb County to Dougherty County for the Derwin Brown murder trial
|
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Dougherty County, Georgia |
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Derwin Brown murdered |
| July 10, 2002 |
Dorsey convicted of the murder of Derwin Brown
|
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Derwin Brown murdered |
| July 25, 2002 |
4 murders on the streets of Savannah make this one of the bloodiest days in recent history
|
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City of Savannah, Georgia |
| November 13, 2002 |
William Putnam is executed for the murder of a couple in front of their children 22 years before.
|
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A killer pays the price |
| March 25, 2003 |
Larry Eugene Moon, convicted of murdering Ricky Callahan who entered a Catoosa County store to buy aspirin for his wife in 1984, is put to death by lethal injection.
|
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Catoosa County, Georgia |
| May 6, 2003 |
The man who orchestrated the Alday Family murders, Carl Isaacs, is put to death by lethal injection. At the time he had been on death row longer than any other person.
|
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Alday family murders
|
| November 5, 2003 |
Dernell Stenson is found murdered following a night out with friends. The Cincinnati Reds rookie was killed as he tryed to escape four men who were hijacking his SUV.
|
| March 10, 2005 |
Bibb County District Attorney Howard Simms orders exhumation of the body of Frank Bienert after discovering the death was suspicious, based on information from the trial of James Sullivan. Sullivan, on trial for arranging the murder of his wife Lita, is suspected in the death of Bienert, his father-in-law from whom he inherited Crown Beverages, a $5 million Macon business. |
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James Sullivan and the murder of Lita Sullivan |
| March 11, 2005 |
Judge Rowland Barnes and two others are killed in a shooting at the Fulton County Courthouse. Suspect Brian Nichols was being tried for rape in Barnes' courtroom. While fleeing, Nichols murders a federal agent. |
| |
Atlanta courthouse attack |
| |
Fulton County, Georgia |
| April 30, 2005 |
Chamblee, Georgia police stop a 1992 Lexus with paper tags. Suspicious of the driver, police took him in for questioning. When they ran his prints they found Ernest Morris was wanted in connection with a triple murder in Philadelphia. |
| June 24, 2005 |
Police arrest Michael Natson, a military police office based at Fort Benning, for the murder of Dena Carter. |
| |
Ardena Carter |
| March 13, 2006 |
James Sullivan is convicted of murder in the death of his wife Lita |
| |
James Sullivan and the murder of Lita Sullivan |
| March 15, 2007 |
George and David Edenfield are arrested for the murder of Christopher Barrios |
| |
Christopher Barrios |
| March 24, 2007 |
Lynn Turner is convicted of the murder of Randy Thompson |
| |
Lynn Turner |
| |
Whitfield County, Georgia |
| January 17, 2008 |
Two off-duty Dekalb County police officers, Ricky Bryant Jr. and Eric Barker, 33, are murdered parking lot at the Glenwood Gardens apartment complex |
| |
DeKalb County, Georgia |
| January 31, 2008 |
Gary Hilton pleads guilty to murdering Meredith Emerson. |
| |
Meredith Emerson |
| March 12, 2008 |
Police arrest Demario Atwater in the murder of Athens native Eve Carson |
| March 13, 2008 |
Police in Chapel Hill arrest Lawrence Lovette Jr. in the murder of Eve Carson |
| September 16, 2008 |
Jack Alderman is punished by death for the murder of his wife |
| |
Jack Alderman |
| November 7, 2008 |
Brian Nichols is convicted for the murder of four people including a judge, a federal agent, an officer of the court, and a deputy sheriff as well as 50 other crimes. Although the jury deadlocked on the death sentence, Judge James Bodiford sentenced Nichols to the maximum time on each offense. |
| |
Atlanta courthouse attack |
| May 20, 2009 |
Aubrey Louis Berry is arrested by police at LAX for the murder of Dolla, an Atlanta rapper |
