In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, a 20-year-old boy, was obsessed with a 16-year-old girl, but she wasn’t interested in him.
Frustrated, he breaks into her house and demands that she date him; when she refuses, he k*ills her and then, ostensibly, her 14-year-old sister. The younger sister survived and quickly recognized Paul as the murderer.
In court, Paul showed no remorse and even called the victim stupid.
However, when he was sentenced to de*ath, his attitude shifted and he begged and cried for mercy.
Unfortunately, mercy came in the form of a legal loophole that allowed his de*ath sentence to be commuted to life in prison.
Believing he was exempt from the de*ath penalty due to double jeopardy, he wrote a ridiculous letter to the prosecutor admitting to every detail of the crime. He was almost bragging about what he got away with.
The letter was given to the judge by the attorney. The judge looked at it and said, “We have new evidences here” and ordered a new trial, and Paul was immediately sentenced to de*ath.
The thug was executed a few months later.
