ALABAMA LAST MEAL
JOHN W. PEOPLES, JR.
September 22, 2005

...he wanted their 1968 red Corvette....

Last Meal: Peoples ate very little in the days before the execution and did not make the traditional request for a last meal,

The skinny: Peoples was executed Thursday for killing a family of three and driving off in their vintage sports car in 1983.

More skinny: The boy and his mother were beaten to death with a rifle, but the father's body was too decomposed by the time he was found for investigators to determine the cause of death. Prosecutors say Peoples killed the three because he wanted their 1968 red Corvette, and he was arrested after attempting to sell the car shortly after the killings. Peoples had argued that because he led investigators to the bodies, his attorney should have taken steps to get him a sentence less than the death penalty.

Peoples was arrested in the Corvette soon after the slayings.

Leading up to: In the final days leading up to his execution, Peoples argued that he had a right to die by electrocution, as his original death sentence stipulated, instead of lethal injection, a method Alabama adopted beginning July 1, 2002. The head of the state's death penalty appeals office, Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw, said the execution should be allowed to go forward since Peoples could have requested death in the electric chair but didn't.

Peoples spent Thursday morning visiting with several relatives, including his mother, two daughters and son. He left $186.19 to his brother.

Last words and such: Peoples did not look at or offer an apology to relatives of the victims, instead thanking his own family for their support. "I hope I've handled everything since I've been here with dignity," he said in his final statement as he faced his brother.

Factoids: Peoples was the....

39th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
983rd murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
4th murderer executed in Alabama in 2005
34th murderer executed in Alabama since 1976