Leonard Drane was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for the sexual assault and murder of Renee Blackmon
According to court documents Leonard Drane and his roommate would bring Renee Blackmon to a lake where she was sexually assaulted and murdered
Leonard Drane would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Where Is Leonard Drane Now
Leonard Drane is incarcerated at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison
Leonard Drane Case
The evidence adduced at trial showed that Drane and co-indictee David Willis picked up Renee Blackmon on June 13, 1990, and drove her to a secluded road. Ms. Blackmon’s body was found in a lake on July 1, 1990. She had been shot point-blank in the head with a shotgun and her throat had been cut at least six times. She was tied to a brake drum with a rope. After his arrest, Drane claimed that Willis had sex with the victim and shot her with a shotgun, and then cut her throat because she was still breathing. Drane said he did not know Willis was going to kill the victim and he did not participate in her killing. However, he admitted helping Willis dispose of the body, hide the gun, wash Willis’s truck, and burn their clothes; and that he continued to live with Willis for three weeks until their arrest. He claimed he did so because he was afraid of Willis.
At trial, a witness testified that Drane told her prior to his arrest that he and Willis “picked this [black] girl up at the Huddle House in Elberton, Georgia, and that it would be the last ride she’d ever take.” 1 He further said he “[had sex with] her so bad that she’d never have any more babies” and that he and Willis threw her in the lake. He said the only mistake he made was to put one block on her instead of two (the body had just been discovered). Another witness testified that Drane told him he cut the victim’s throat because she was still alive after Willis shot her. On the night of the murder, after Willis and Drane had disposed of the victim’s body, they went to a bar and met some women. They went with the women to a trailer, where they drank beer and made comments about hating blacks. One of the women noticed that the men, who were not wearing shirts, had scratches on their chests. In the penalty phase, one of the women testified that Drane forced her to orally sodomize him at knife point that same night.
In Drane v. State, 265 Ga. 255, 455 S.E.2d 27 (1995), we held that the evidence was sufficient to support Drane’s convictions and the finding of the existence of the statutory aggravating circumstances, id. at (1) and (7), 455 S.E.2d 27, but we remanded the case to the trial court to determine: (1) whether the prosecutor’s peremptory strikes were gender-neutral and (2) whether there were exceptional facts and circumstances so that the exclusion of Willis’s alleged confession to a cellmate deprived Drane of due process. Id. at 256, 455 S.E.2d 27. Because the results of the proceedings on remand call for further appellate review, we now address these issues and other remaining enumerations of error.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-supreme-court/1140545.html
