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Michael Joe BOYD
New name: Mika'eel Abdullah Abdus-Samad
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: 1983 / 1986
Date of birth: ???
Victims profile: One man /
William Price
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Shelby County, Tennessee, USA
Status: Sentenced to death in 1988. Commuted to life in prison
without the possibility of parole
on September 4, 2007
Michael Joe Boyd,
was convicted of felony murder stemming from the shooting death of
William Price during an armed robbery in November of 1986.
Price and a companion,
David Hippen, had solicited two women, Barbara Lee and Renita Tate, to
accompany them to a Memphis motel. Upon their arrival at the Lorraine
Motel, Price gave one of the women a $100 bill to rent two rooms.
Michael Boyd, who was
Lee’s boyfriend, drove up to the scene with two other men and approached
Price’s van. Boyd pointed his pistol at Hippen and demanded money. Price
grabbed Boyd’s arm, Boyd fired the gun, and a struggle ensued.
When Price tried to
drive away from the scene, Boyd “emptied” the gun at him, striking him
with five or six shots which caused his death.
Boyd had been convicted
of second-degree murder in 1983 and had served 3 years of a ten year
sentence before being paroled only 4 months before killing William Price.
UPDATE:
September 4, 2007
Governor
Phil Bredesen today commuted the death sentence of Michael Joe Boyd to
life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Gov. Bredesen's
said, "This appears to me an extraordinary death penalty case where the
grossly inadequate legal representation received by the defendant at his
post-conviction hearing, combined with procedural limitations, has
prevented the judical system from ever comprehensively reviewing his
legitimate claims of having received ineffective assistance of counsel
at the sentencing phase of his trial. This combination of inadequate
representation and procedural limitations within the judicial system
raises in my mind a substantial and unresolved doubt that the trial jury
would have imposed the death penalty had the defendant received
competent legal representation."
