In the winter of 1973, in the small community of Chickamauga in Walker, Georgia, the life of Roy Lee Sizemore Sr., a 67-year-old male, was brutally cut short. On the evening of December 14th, his son, Eddie Sizemore, made a horrifying discovery at the family's grocery store. He found his father in the back of the establishment, the victim of a violent armed robbery. The elder Sizemore had been beaten and fatally shot in the chest.
The investigation into the murder quickly led to a suspect. A few days after the crime, authorities arrested Wilburn Wiley Dobbs and charged him with the murder of Roy Lee Sizemore Sr. In May of the following year, a jury found Dobbs guilty and sentenced him to death, in addition to life in prison for other charges related to the robbery. This was one of the first death sentences handed down in Georgia after the penalty was reinstated.
The legal saga that followed would stretch on for decades, prolonging the pain for the Sizemore family. Dobbs appealed his case, and while higher courts did not dispute his guilt, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing in 1998. The court determined that Dobbs' original defense attorney had not adequately pleaded for his life. However, years passed without the new hearing taking place, leaving the case in a state of limbo. Finally, in December 2016, 43 years after the murder, a resentencing hearing was held. An aging and frail Wilburn Wiley Dobbs, then 67, appeared in court. Given the circumstances and the passage of time, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing a final, albeit delayed, chapter to the legal proceedings. Throughout the many years, Eddie Sizemore remained a constant presence, seeking justice for the father he had lost in such a violent manner.
