THE PROSECUTOR'S VIEW
News and Views From a Prosecutor's Perspective

What Horrible Things Did These Killers Do To Cause Themselves To Be Sentenced To Die?

"They are my first thoughts when I wake up every morning," said Mr. Lee Roy Earley about his son, Eddie, and daughter-in-law, Tina, who were murdered in Lexington by T.C. Bowling in 1990, "And they are my last thoughts at night before I go to sleep." Their death and the injury of his grandson, who was shot and wounded at the same time by Bowling, has changed his life."It will never, ever be the same," he says. "There is a hole in my heart that will never be filled. Now, every day is a bad day, some are just better than others." T. C. Bowling was sentenced to death in Fayette County for what he did.

The essence of these reports or opinions is that because the killer had a hard life or sad childhood, he shouldn’t have to pay the ultimate price for slaying an innocent human being. Over and over we are told by these writers, reporters and other anti-death penalty activists that a grim upbringing somehow excuses a vicious and brutal murder. They tell us that if we don't feel compassion for these condemned killers, we are not as righteous as they are.

Today there are twenty-nine (29) people on Kentucky’s Death Row awaiting execution. Those same editorials and news reports rarely, if ever, describe the violent, vicious and cold-blooded murders they committed that caused them to be sentenced to death. The public should know the gruesome and violent facts of the aggravated murders these condemned killers committed.

Reasons for Death Sentence

Victim(s)

Tammy Acker
*father survived strangulation with electric cord

This killer has murdered at least seven people. Convicted of murder in 1977. Case #1: In 1989 in Harlan County he shot four victims because he thought one of them had reported him to a parole officer. Case #2: In 1991 in Harlan County he shot the Vaughn brothers at a party. The corpse of eye witness Donald Gross was found in Foley's front yard.

This killer abducted, raped, and then executed a 12-year-old girl in 1978 in Boone County by shooting her in the back and in the back of her head. That same day he robbed a storekeeper and her customers; shot a Ky. State Trooper twice at a roadblock, and collided with a Ky. State Police cruiser during a high speed chase. He has prior felony convictions for armed robbery, four rapes, four assaults with a dangerous weapon, and two abductions for immoral purposes.

This killer escaped from the Madison County Jail in 1985. He was there while awaiting trials in three counties. He stole guns and several cars; shot at a Ky. State Trooper, and caused another police officer's death in a gunfight. He executed a young couple while they were inside their car. He shot the man in the face, chest, shoulder, and back of head and shot the woman in the shoulder, temple, back of head, and through the eye. He spent all but two of his 15 adult years in four Ohio, three Virginia, and four Kentucky prisons.

Mitchell Willoughby
25 at the time
Male, White

This killer beat up and shot a 78-year-old retired coal miner during a robbery in Harlan County in 1981. The victim had multiple skull fractures and brain lacerations. The killer took the victim's wallet, wedding band, Masonic ring, and gun and threw the victim's cane and eyeglasses into a river near the murder/robbery scene.

In Jefferson County in 1979, this killer kidnapped, robbed, and executed an elderly man who begged for his life. The killer drew a gun on the victim as he was returning to his car in a grocery store parking lot. He commandeered the car and threw the victim down an embankment several miles away. The killer then shot the victim from point blank range on the top of the head, in the face below the right eye, inside the right ear, and behind the right ear. He returned hours later to remove a wristwatch from the body. The victim had been on his way to celebrate his 77th birthday with his adult children.

This killer was sentenced to death for murder, robbery, kidnapping, attempted murder and attempted rape in Christian County in 1994.

This killer executed two victims by shooting them in the back of the head during a grocery store robbery in Madison County in 1987. One victim died almost instantly, the other died two days later. The killer confessed to these crimes and to the attempted execution of another grocery storekeeper one month earlier in which the victim survived a gunshot to the back of his head.

This killer executed an elderly couple by beating them with a hammer and a pistol during a robbery at their home in Warren County in 1981. The killer had five prior felony convictions. He confessed.

This killer kidnapped, robbed, bound, gagged and executed two high school students who became lost on their way to a football game in Jefferson County in 1984. The killer sodomized one of the victims before executing him. The killer told four people he had killed the victims. The personal property of the victims was found in his possession.

Next Newsletter