Gary Brown was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Jack McGraw
According to court documents Gary Brown and his two accomplices came up with a plan to get Jack McGraw drunk so they could rob him. However when they arrived at McGraw’s residence he would tell the men he had to work the next day so would not be drinking. The trio would attack with Brown stabbing Jack McGraw to death with a pocketknife
Gary Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Gary Brown was executed by lethal injection on April 24 2003
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When Was Gary Brown Executed
Gary Brown was executed on April 24 2003
Gary Brown Case
Gary Leon Brown was put to death Thursday by lethal injection for the 1986 slashing of a 60-year-old Center Point man After 16 years on Alabama’s Death Row, the 44-year-old Brown was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. after a series of seven injections.
Brown made no public statement but kept his eyes locked on his wife, Elizabeth Anne Brown, who was just feet away in the witness room, separated by a glass window. For about 5 minutes they mouthed exchanges to each other, including “I love you” and “Go with God.” Strapped to a gurney, he waved to her with the fingers of his left hand. “Goodbye sweetie,” he mouthed. “I love you.” Brown spent his last day alive visiting with his mother and his wife, whom he met and married while on Death Row at Holman Prison near Atmore. He also visited with other friends and family for about seven hours including his son, Chris Brown, 22; spiritual adviser, Glenn Webber; sisters, Donna Jordan and Brenda Bourquard; brother, David Brown; and friend, Richard Smith.
The group sang hymns, prayed and took communion. The last hour he spent alone with his wife. Brown left his wife $109.92 from his prison account, three Bibles, and the journal he kept while on Death Row. His son received his watch and a wooden cross. The rest of his belongings, a radio, headphones, books, a dictionary and a television went to the remaining Death Row inmates. Brown declined his chance for a last meal of his choice and instead ate only an ice cream sandwich from a vending machine.
He and two other men were convicted for the murder of Jack David McGraw, a Korean War veteran who was stabbed 78 times, nearly to the point of decapitation. Also convicted in the murder were James Lynn Bynum of Trussville, who was paroled in 1997, and Archie Bankhead of Birmingham, who is serving life without parole. Bankhead’s initial death sentence was reversed on appeal and at retrial he testified he had “found the Lord.” Authorities said Bankhead was the ring-leader and used a butcher knife to slice McGraw’s neck. Brown was scheduled for execution last year, but it was delayed.
McGraw had no close relatives at the time of his death so no family members were there to witness Brown’s execution. The attack on McGraw had been planned, prosecutors have said, by the men who had previously gone to McGraw’s house to drink and participate in paid sexual acts.
Brown and the other men went to McGraw’s home on Memorial Day to drink with him with the plan that he would pass out and they could rob his home. But McGraw said he had to work the next day and couldn’t party with them. The men then attacked him outside his trailer and dragged him back inside. Brown struck the first blows, prosecutors said, and repeatedly stabbed McGraw with a pocketknife as Bankhead stood over him with a skillet. McGraw was stabbed in the back 59 times, his throat and neck were slashed 16 times and his face showed three knife wounds, prosecutors said. After the slaying, the trio loaded some of his household appliances into their car and took $67. Neighborhood children found his body.
Brown, his family and his attorney made no public statements in the week leading up to his execution. However, in a letter to former Gov. Don Siegelman last year, Brown said he was remorseful and had little recollection of the incident because he was “totally obliterated” on drugs. “I know that I am the one to blame for the situation I’m in and for the situation I’ve put my family in. Jack McGraw didn’t deserve to die it was a horrible and despicable act and (saying) I’m truly sorry is an understatement. I can’t ever pay my debt to Mr. McGraw.”
