On the night of September 1, 1993, the life of 34-year-old Ruby Lois Gosha was tragically cut short in her home in Troy, Alabama. A Black woman, she was shot in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun as she slept. The perpetrator was her former boyfriend and the father of her child, 33-year-old Holly Wood. Their relationship had soured, and just weeks before the murder, Wood had assaulted Gosha, injuring her hand so severely that she lost the use of two fingers.
On the evening of the murder, Gosha's mother had ordered Wood to leave their home and not return.
Ignoring the warning, Wood came back to the residence four hours later, armed with a shotgun. He crept into Gosha's bedroom and shot her in the head while she was asleep. Afterward, Wood callously bragged to his cousin, 'I shot that bitch in the head, and her brains out and all she did was wiggle.” He was arrested at his father's home in Luverne, where authorities discovered the murder weapon hidden under a pile of leaves.
Wood, who was on parole for shooting another former girlfriend at the time of Gosha's murder, had a lengthy criminal record with 18 prior arrests. He was convicted of Ruby Gosha's murder and, following the jury's recommendation, was sentenced to death. Throughout his appeals, Wood's attorneys argued that he was mentally disabled with a low IQ and that this information was not adequately presented to the jury during his trial. These appeals were ultimately unsuccessful, with the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting his claims. After spending years on death row, Holly Wood was executed by lethal injection on September 9, 2010. He had no last words.
