Walter Moody

Walter Leroy Moody Jr. (March 24, 1935 – April 19, 2018) was an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death and executed in Alabama for the 1989 letter bomb murder of Robert S. Vance, a U.S. federal judge serving on the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

When Moody was executed by lethal injection in April 2018, he became the oldest death row inmate to be executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He grew up as the oldest of three children and spent much of his time "tinkering with machinery". He graduated from Peach County High School in 1953, and held a multitude of military positions in the years leading up to 1961. Taking classes at a small college, he considered becoming a neurosurgeon but he did not make good grades. He was later able to take some law school classes. After a psychiatric evaluation in 1967, he was characterized as harboring violent thoughts, and the doctor evaluating him, Thomas M. Hall, testified that he was

After the trial, Moody filed a federal lawsuit against the employees, the deputy that arrested him, the sheriff, and the county prosecutor under the grounds of malicious prosecution, requesting $1.5 million in actual damages. The case's appeal was heard by federal judge Robert Smith Vance, his future victim, who was skeptical of Moody's case.

Louis J. Freeh, who prosecuted the federal case at Robert Mueller’s behest, said that the bombings at the offices of both Robinson and the NAACP were meant to deflect attention away from Moody. After a successful prosecution by special prosecutors Louis Freeh and Howard Shapiro, Moody was convicted on all counts. He was sentenced to seven federal life terms. He remained on death row at the Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore, Alabama, from February 13, 1997.

Moody was alleged to have attempted to run a fraudulent business scheme from death row some time around 2015, according to an anonymous elderly Florida woman who spoke to Alabama media. She claimed to have received a letter asking her to invest in a new business. The letter had a Holman Correctional Facility return address from Moody. However, Moody was not known to have faced any disciplinary action as a result.

On February 23, 2018, an execution date for Moody was set for April 19, 2018. He was subsequently executed on this date, at 8:42 p.m. Aged 83 years and 26 days at execution, he was the oldest inmate executed in the United States in the post-Furman era, surpassing the previous record set by the execution of John B. Nixon Sr., who was executed in Mississippi in December 2005 at the age of 77 years, 8 months and 13 days.

In popular culture The case was featured in the episode "Deadly Delivery" of Forensic Files which first aired on October 29, 1998. It was also featured in the episode "Living in Terror" of The New Detectives.