Troy Leon Gregg

Troy Leon Gregg (April 29, 1948 – July 29, 1980) was the first condemned individual whose death sentence was upheld by the United States Supreme Court after the Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia invalidated all previous capital punishment laws in the United States. Gregg participated in the first successful escape from Reidsville State Prison's death row with three other death row inmates in 1980, but was killed later that night during a bar fight.

Biography Gregg was convicted of murdering Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore in order to rob them. The victims had given him and another man, Dennis Weaver, a ride when they were hitchhiking; Gregg admitted to shooting them, robbing them and stealing their car. The crime occurred on November 21, 1973.

In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held by a 7–2 majority that the State of Georgia could constitutionally put Gregg to death; Georgia, in common with Texas and Florida, had instituted a death penalty statute requiring a separate bifurcated trial proceeding to determine punishment in a capital case after the establishment of guilt, establishing a list of aggravating circumstances that must be present to consider a death penalty, and providing for review by the State Supreme Court. It also allowed for consideration of mitigating circumstances; on the same day, the Court, whose primary concern was racial bias in sentencing, rejected the North Carolina and Louisiana death penalty statutes for failure to allow for mitigating circumstances to be considered in sentencing.

Prison escape and death On July 28, 1980, Gregg escaped together with three other condemned murderers, Timothy McCorquodale, Johnny L. Johnson, and David Jarrell, from Georgia State Prison in Reidsville in the first death row breakout in Georgia history. The four had altered their prison clothing to resemble the uniforms worn by correctional officers, then sawed through the bars of their cells and a window and walked along a ledge to a fire escape. They subsequently drove off in a car which had been left in the visitors' parking lot by one of the escapees' aunts. Their escape was not discovered until Gregg telephoned a newspaper to explain their reasons for doing so.

The other escapees were captured three days later hiding in a rundown house owned by William Flamont, another member of the Outlaws who was friends with David Jarrell.

The prison escape prompted prison officials to expedite existing plans to transfer Georgia's death row inmates from the prison in Reidsville to a newer facility, the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

As for Gregg's co-escapees, Timothy McCorquodale was executed in 1987 for the murder of Donna Dixon in 1974. Johnny Johnson was convicted of murdering Suzanne Edenfield in 1974. David Jarrell was convicted of murdering Mala Still in 1973. Johnson and Jarrell, as of 2025, remain in prison and are serving life sentences.