James Hudson was executed by the State of Virginia for a triple murder
According to court documents James Hudson had been feuding with his neighbors for years. On the day of the murder Hudson would open fire killing Patsy A. Cole and Thomas W. Cole, both 64, and Thomas’s brother Walter S. Cole, 56
James Hudson was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
James Hudson would be executed by lethal injection on August 18 2004 just two years following the murders
James Hudson Photos
James Hudson FAQ
When Was James Hudson Executed
James Hudson was executed on August 18 2004
James Hudson Case
James Bryant Hudson was executed by injection last night for the shotgun murders of three people two years ago in Halifax County. Hudson, 57, was pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:07 p.m., said Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Asked if he wished to make a last statement, Hudson told Warden George Hinkle, “No, sir.”
“He seemed very calm, very quiet. He seemed pretty resigned to his fate,” Traylor said. Hudson never challenged his death sentence and refused to let his lawyers file appeals. During his last days, Hudson did not schedule any visits with family, clergy or lawyers, Traylor said.
In a statement yesterday, Gov. Mark R. Warner said, “I have not been asked by Mr. Hudson to intervene and there are no legal challenges to this scheduled execution. Accordingly, I expect the court-ordered sentence to be carried out.” Hudson pleaded guilty to capital murder in the deaths of brothers Walter Stanley Cole, 56, and Thomas Wesley Cole, 64. Hudson also pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Patsy Ayers Cole, 64, the wife of Wesley Cole.
The three slayings occurred July 3, 2002, in southern Halifax County. Hudson and the Cole brothers were distant relatives and neighbors on state Route 658. The Cole brothers were shot with Hudson’s 12-gauge shotgun in a driveway that Stanley Cole shared with Hudson and over which the men had a long-standing dispute. Wesley Cole was driving a pickup also occupied by his brother when they encountered Hudson’s truck on the driveway. After the men exchanged words, Hudson went to his pickup and returned with a shotgun. Hudson shot both brothers in the head. He found Patsy Cole working in her vegetable garden and shot her before driving off. He was arrested the next day.
Virginia for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said Hudson was the second death-row inmate to be executed this year after deciding not to appeal. Brian Lee Cherrix was executed on March 18. Traylor said members of the victims’ families witnessed the execution. However, citing department policy, Traylor would not identify them.
A half-dozen protesters held a vigil in a field just outside the prison grounds. Hudson was the fourth person executed in Virginia this year and the 93rd in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976.
