Brian Terrell was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of John Watson
According to court documents Brian Terrell would steal checks from seventy year old John Watson and when he was confronted would murder the elderly man
Brian Terrell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Brian Terrell would be executed on December 15 2015
Many believe that Brian Terrell was an innocent man as there was no evidence tying him to the stolen checks or the murder
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When Was Brian Terrell Executed
Brian Terrell was executed on December 15 2015
Brian Terrell Case
Brian Keith Terrell, the man convicted in the 1992 slaying of a 70-year-old Newton County man, was executed early Wednesday morning by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied a clemency request by Terrell’s attorneys.
The death sentence was carried out at 12:52 a.m. Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement. The condemned inmate accepted a final prayer but declined to record a final statement, a department spokeswoman said.
Terrell was convicted in 2001 in Walton County of shooting and beating to death John Watson at Watson’s home on Ga. Highway 142 in Newton County. The jury recommended a sentence of death and Terrell’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in December 2014.
Terrell’s mother was a close friend of Watson’s and regularly drove him to dialysis treatments in Covington.
Evidence at trial showed that days after Terrell was released from prison on other charges he stole 10 checks from Watson’s home and began using them. On June 20, 1992, when Watson discovered that his checks had been stolen and learned that Terrell’s name had been signed on some of them, he informed Terrell’s mother and summoned a sheriff’s deputy. Watson gave a report to the deputy; however, he asked the deputy not to pursue the case yet. Watson then agreed with Terrell’s mother not to press charges if Terrell returned a significant portion of the stolen money by the following Monday morning, June 22.
Instead, on June 21, Terrell had his cousin drop him off at Watson’s house. According to court testimony, Terrell waited for Watson to come outside to go to his dialysis appointment and fired several shots at the older man. Watson was struck once in the leg by a bullet that ricocheted off the driveway. Terrell then reloaded and continued his attack. Terrell overtook Watson, struggled with him, shot him three more times, dragged him into some bushes at the side of the yard, and beat him about the face and head, breaking bones in his jaw, nose, cheek, forehead and eye socket and knocking out some of his teeth. The beating was so severe that bone penetrated into the victim’s brain.
Terrell was indicted in Newton County Superior Court for one count of malice murder and 10 counts of first degree forgery. Terrell’s first trial, which was moved to Perry due to pretrial publicity, ended in a hung jury. Terrell’s second trial resulted in a conviction and death sentence. The Georgia Supreme Court subsequently reversed the conviction due to an error in jury selection. Terrell’s third trial was held in Walton County on change of venue from Newton County. On Feb. 6, 2001, a jury convicted Terrell as charged in the indictment and recommended a death sentence. Terrell filed a motion for new trial, which was denied on July 23, 2001.
Terrell had been scheduled to die by lethal injection in March, but that execution was postponed due to problems with the lethal injection drug used by the Department of Corrections.
Terrell declined to request a last meal, and therefore received the institutional tray of chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, bread pudding and fruit punch.
Georgia has executed 59 men and one woman since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973. There are 76 men currently on death row in Georgia.
