In the predawn hours of March 25, 1995, the quiet of a Holt, Alabama neighborhood in Tuscaloosa County was shattered by a brutal act of violence that ended the life of 70-year-old Mattie Lee 'Polly' Wesson. A white female, Wesson was a widow living alone. The tranquility of her home was invaded by an assailant who subjected her to a horrific ordeal of rape, sodomy, and ultimately, murder by gunshot.
Despite her grievous injuries, Wesson demonstrated immense strength in her final moments.
After being shot in her bedroom, she managed to make her way across the street to the front yard of a neighbor, where she collapsed. Before succumbing to her injuries, she was able to provide a crucial piece of information to a neighbor who came to her aid, stating that a Black man had raped and shot her. This dying declaration would become a pivotal element in the investigation that followed.
The investigation into Wesson's murder led authorities to her neighbor, Eddie Duvall Powell III, a 25-year-old Black male who lived with a friend, Bobby Johnson, in the house across the street. Investigators uncovered a wealth of physical evidence linking Powell to the heinous crime. His semen was found in the victim's mouth, rectum, and vagina. Wesson's blood was discovered on Powell's pants and on a leather jacket he had borrowed from Johnson. Furthermore, Powell's handprint was lifted from a window at the front of Wesson's home where a screen had been cut, indicating the point of forced entry. An acquaintance of Powell's, Jason Long, testified that on the day of the murder, Powell gave him a handgun and asked him to dispose of it; the weapon was never recovered. Long also testified that Powell had confessed to the crime, stating that he 'did the bitch, she ran up on him and he shot her.' Another witness, Lawrence Bunkley, corroborated this, testifying that Powell made a similar incriminating statement to him.
Eddie Duvall Powell III was arrested and charged with capital murder. His legal journey was a protracted one, involving two separate trials. The first trial concluded with a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the punishment. A second trial was held in 1998, and this time, the jury found him guilty of murder and recommended the death penalty.
Following his conviction and sentence, Powell spent over a decade on death row, pursuing numerous appeals. His legal team raised claims of intellectual disability, which were ultimately unsuccessful in overturning his sentence. On June 16, 2011, at the age of 41, Eddie Duvall Powell III was executed by lethal injection at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama. In his final moments, he expressed remorse, apologizing to the victim's family, his own family, and the state of Alabama. The family of Mattie Lee Wesson issued a statement following the execution, expressing that while it could not bring her back, they found a sense of closure in knowing that justice had been served.
