James Messer was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his eight year old niece
According to court documents James Messer would pick up his eight year old niece from school without her mother knowing about it. When the little girl did not come home the mother would go to the school and was surprised that Messer had picked her up. A massive search would start the next day for the eight year old
James Messer would fatally beat and stab the little girl to death before hiding her body. Apparently his rage was set off when he attempted to molest the eight year old and she fought back.
James Messer would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
James Messer would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 28 1988
James Messer FAQ
When was James Messer executed
James Messer was executed on July 28 1988
How was James Messer executed
James Messer was executed by way of the electric chair
James Messer Case
James Messer Jr. was executed in Georgia’s electric chair Thursday night for beating and stabbing his his 8-year-old niece to death when she fought his attempts to molest her.
Messer, 34, was pronounced dead at 7:23 p.m. Thursday, said Department of Corrections spokesman John Siler.
Warden Walter Zant asked Messer if he had any final words, and he said he did not. Messer did ask for a prayer, and prison Chaplain Nolan Lavelle placed his hands on Messer’s left forearm and gave about a one-minute prayer. At the conclusion, Messer said, ″Amen.″
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) _ James Messer Jr. was executed in Georgia’s electric chair Thursday night for beating and stabbing his his 8-year-old niece to death when she fought his attempts to molest her.
Messer, 34, was pronounced dead at 7:23 p.m. Thursday, said Department of Corrections spokesman John Siler.
Warden Walter Zant asked Messer if he had any final words, and he said he did not. Messer did ask for a prayer, and prison Chaplain Nolan Lavelle placed his hands on Messer’s left forearm and gave about a one-minute prayer. At the conclusion, Messer said, ″Amen.″
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Fourteen people witnessed the execution, including one of Messer’s attorneys. Messer did not ask for any personal witnesses to the execution, Siler said. His mother, Mary Messer, and an aunt visited him at the prison Wednesday.
Outside the prison, 12 death penalty protesters sang, while about 20 pro- death penalty demonstrators, including one man wearing a white Ku Klux Klan robe, carried signs in favor of the execution.
The execution came just over an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 vote, refused to halt it. Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan dissented, but there was no immediate elaboration from the court.
The Supreme Court order followed a similar action Thursday by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which had been asked to commute Messer’s death sentence to life in prison. Chairman Wayne Snow said the panel concluded ″there are insufficient grounds for further consideration″ of the commutation request.
Snow said the board rejected a psychiatrist’s testimony that Messer’s ″explosive″ behavior may have been caused by brain damage.
Messer was convicted of the Feb. 13, 1979, slaying of Rhonda Joan Tanner. Prosecutors said he abducted her from her school in Cedartown, tried to molest her and then killed her when she fought him.
Her parents, Wayne and Joyce Tanner of Cedartown, came to the prison Thursday with 28 friends and neighbors carrying signs with slogans like ″Ten Years Too Long″ and ″Tanner Family Finally Gets Justice.″
After the execution, Tanner, 47, tearfully said the death was ″a big relief. He finally paid.″
″We feel we can finally put our baby to rest,″ said Mrs. Tanner, 45.
Messer was the 13th person executed in Georgia’s electric chair since the state resumed executions in 1983. He was the 101st person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed states to retore capital punishment in 1976.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hall of Atlanta rejected Messer’s appeal for a stay Wednesday, and the Georgia Supreme Court denied a stay Monday.
Messer was sentenced to death in 1980. Prosecutors said he abducted his niece after telling school officials her father had been hurt.
The girl’s body, clad in a shirt, was found the next day. Testimony in Messer’s trial showed he had led her into the woods and tried to molest her. When she resisted, he kicked her, slashed her stomach five times, beat and stabbed her, then left her to die.
Messer’s lawyers contended their client was mentally incompetent and thus, under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, could not be put to death. The attorneys also have argued that Messer’s civil rights were violated when state prison officials refused to allow neurological tests for a possible brain tumor.
Messer came within 15 hours of execution two years ago, but won a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. The case later went back to the Circuit Court, which voted 7-5 to uphold the death sentence.
https://apnews.com/article/f58b57024fda196cb28f3e0aa0113ea2
