Tuesday, March 5, 2013

IN LOVING MEMORY OF KATIE BELLE MOORE AND VELMA ODELL NOBLIN (MURDERED BY BOBBY GLEN WILCHER ON 5 MARCH 1982; HE WAS EXECUTED ON 18 OCTOBER 2006)



On this date, 5 March 1982, Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin were murdered by Bobby Glen Wilcher on 5 March 1982. He was executed by lethal injection in Mississippi on 18 October 2006. Let us not forget the two women who were murdered. 


Bobby Glen Wilcher (left) and his two victims.
In 1994, a resentencing trial was held that resulted in Bobby Glenn Wilcher's second death sentence for the 1982 murder and robbery of Katie Belle Moore, 45. The case arises out of the gruesome double murder and robbery of Velma Odell Noblin and Katie Belle Moore. The evidence reflects that Bobby Glenn Wilcher, age nineteen, met his two female victims at a Scott County bar on the night of March 5, 1982. When the bar closed at midnight, Wilcher persuaded the women to take him home. Under this pretext, he directed the women down a deserted service road in the Bienville National Forest--where he robbed and brutally murdered the women by stabbing them a total of forty-six times. Thereafter, Wilcher was stopped for speeding by the Forest Police Department between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. He was alone and was driving victim Noblin's car. The victims' purses and one victim's brassiere were on the back seat. Wilcher was covered in blood; he had a bloody knife in his back pocket that had flesh on the blade. Wilcher explained his condition by telling the policeman that he had cut his thumb while skinning a possum. The officer followed Wilcher to the hospital, where Wilcher's wound was cleaned and covered with a band-aid. Another officer was called to the hospital to observe Wilcher, the knife, the car, the purses, and the brassiere. The officers left the hospital on an emergency call. Wilcher went home. The next morning, he abandoned Noblin's car at an apartment complex. Wilcher also threw the victims' purses and some of the victims' clothing in a ditch. He was arrested later that day. The victims' jewelry was subsequently found in Wilcher's bedroom.

UPDATE: Just 27 minutes after the appointed hour that Bobby Glen Wilcher was scheduled to receive a lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution for further review. News of the order was received at 6:27 p.m. Tuesday, 53 minutes after the Supreme Court placed the execution on hold as Wilcher waited in his holding cell next to the execution chamber. Corrections officials said Wilcher would be placed on suicide watch and returned him to his previous residence on Death Row, where he lived for 24 years since the murders of his two victims in 1982. A brief two-paragraph order faxed to the Mississippi State Penitentiary did not specify the court's reason for granting the stay. U.S. Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who initially received Wilcher's final appeal, referred Wilcher's case to the entire court, which voted 6-3 to grant the stay. Justices Scalia, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts voted against the stay. The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., reported moments later that the Supreme Court would review the case later in the fall, the earliest being in October when oral arguments could be heard. If the U.S. Supreme Court allows the execution to proceed, the Mississippi Supreme Court will set a new execution date.

QUOTES BY THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES:
For the families of the victims, there finally is closure. "The families are relieved. It was long overdue," said Moore's nephew, Joe Rigby, who was Scott County's coroner in 1982. He is now the circuit clerk. Wilcher said before his execution that he didn't want a sedative but changed his mind as the time neared. Epps said Wilcher indicated he got only an hour of sleep Tuesday night because he was writing goodbye letters.

Tommy Moore said watching his mother's killer be executed would help him move on with life. "My emotions are better now because it's finally over," Moore said. "We don't have to focus on it all the time. But it just looks to me like he died too peaceful a death compared to the crime he committed."

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