Troy Leon Gregg was the first condemned individual whose death sentence was upheld by the United States Supreme Court after the Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia invalidated all previously enacted death penalty laws in the United States. He later participated in the first successful escape from a Georgia death row, but was killed later that night.
Background
Gregg was convicted of murdering Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore in order to rob them. The victims had given him and another man, Dennis Weaver, a ride when they were hitchhiking; Gregg admitted to shooting them and to then robbing them and stealing the car. The crime occurred on November 21, 1973. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held by a 7–2 majority that the State of Georgia could constitutionally put Gregg to death; Georgia, in common with Texas and Florida, had instituted a death penalty statute requiring a separate, "bifurcated" trial proceeding to determine punishment in a capital case after the establishment of guilt, establishing a list of aggravating circumstances that must be present to consider a death penalty, and providing for review by the State Supreme Court. It also allowed for consideration of mitigating circumstances; on the same day, the Court, whose primary concern was racial bias in sentencing, rejected the North Carolina and Louisiana death penalty statutes for failure to allow for mitigating circumstances to be considered in sentencing. On July 28, 1980, Gregg escaped together with three other condemned murderers, Timothy McCorquodale, Johnny L. Johnson, and David Jarrell, from Georgia State Prison in Reidsville in the first death row breakout in Georgia history. The four had sawn through the bars of their cells and a window and then walked along a ledge to a fire escape, after altering their prison clothing to resemble correctional officer uniforms, and then left in a car parked in the visitors' parking lot by one of their aunts. Their escape was not discovered until Gregg telephoned a newspaper to explain their reasons. Gregg was beaten to death later that night in a biker bar in North Carolina; his body was found in a lake. He had been drinking heavily and attempted to assault one of the waitresses. She rebuked his advances and he became violent towards her. One of the local bikers present took offense to his actions and assaulted and killed him, he and several other locals then dumped the body in a lake located behind the bar. The other escapees were captured three days later.
