In the winter of 1977, the city of Mobile, Alabama, was rocked by the brutal murders of a local couple, 38-year-old Lois Moss Green and her 40-year-old husband, Warren Lowell Green. On December 1st, the couple was fatally shot during a robbery of their hardware store in Mount Vernon, a crime that set in motion a long and contentious legal battle. The items stolen included a stereo, a television, and a gold watch that was intended as a birthday present for Warren.
The investigation
initially focused on a man named Theodore Roberts after an eyewitness identified him. Roberts's girlfriend also implicated him, telling police his gun was the murder weapon. However, the case took a sharp turn seven months later when two other men, Percy Craig and Roger McQueen, who were involved in the robbery, named Freddie Lee Wright as the gunman. Based on their statements, authorities dropped the charges against Roberts and arrested Wright.
Freddie Lee Wright, a Black man, faced two trials for the murders of the white couple. His first trial, with a mixed-race jury, ended in a mistrial with the jury voting 11-to-1 for acquittal. A month later, a second trial was held with an all-white jury. In this trial, Wright's former girlfriend testified that he had confessed to the murders. This time, the jury returned a guilty verdict for armed robbery and capital murder, and Wright was sentenced to death.
The conviction, however, was mired in controversy. Over the years, appeals raised serious questions about the fairness of Wright's trial. One of the co-defendants who testified against him later recanted, claiming he was coerced by the prosecution with threats of the electric chair. The other co-defendant also provided a written affidavit stating he was pressured to name Wright. Allegations arose that the prosecution had withheld crucial exculpatory evidence from the defense, including information about the initial suspect and evidence of deals made with the witnesses who testified against Wright. Despite these concerns, and even with two Alabama Supreme Court Justices voting to stay his execution citing the likelihood of his innocence, Freddie Lee Wright was executed on March 3, 2000. He maintained his innocence until his death.
