The State of Georgia was going to execute Brandon Joseph Rhode today, but had to delay it off for a little while, because he tried to kill himself (slit his wrists) earlier today.
Brandon Joseph Rhode and another man, Daniel Lucas, were both convicted separately for the 1988 triple slaying of Steven Moss, age 37, his son Bryan, age 11, and his daughter Kristin, age 15 in Jones County, Georgia (near Macon).
Both men have been sentenced to be executed. Lucas' case is still under appeal, out of the three possible avenues of appeal, Lucas has lost two. He filed his latest appeal last year.
The two men were convicted on nine counts: three counts of malice murder; three counts of felony murder; two counts of burglary; and one count of kidnapping with bodily injury. Both men are currently held at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia.
Before the slayings, Rhode and Lucas both had prior records, but neither included violent crimes. Rhode had the more serious record, with mostly burglary convictions.
The Moss family were murdered on April 23, 1998 at the Moss's home on Griswoldville Road in Jones County, Georgia.
Rhode and Lucas entered the Moss home twice at separate periods on April 23, 1998. The first time, they ransacked the home, cleaned out the gun cabinet, including Steven Moss' .357 revolver, some jewelery, and a camcorder. No one knows why they went back to the home a second time, even after a friend had warned them not to return. Perhaps they returned to search for more property.
Steven Moss had recently started a trucking company hauling logs. Gerri Ann Moss told investigators she had seen her husband at about 3:30 p.m. on April 23 when he stopped by to see her at her job, and that he had left to go home, and should have arrived there at about the same time as their two children would get home from school.
At 4 p.m:
a school bus dropped Bryan Moss, age 11, a Mattie Wells Elementary School fifth grader, at the home. When Bryan entered the home, the two men pointed their guns at him and ordered him to sit down in the living room.
At 4:05 p.m.:
a school bus dropped Kristin Moss, age 15 a Jones County High School student, at the home. While she was walking up the driveway, Rhode and Lucas ordered Bryan to get into the bedroom and Lucas shot Bryan six times.
At the same time, Rhode confronted Kristin and shot her with the gun he had stolen earlier from her father's gun cabinet. Rhode shot her twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Lucas then came up and fired another shot into Kristin's leg.
At about 4:20 p.m.:
the father, Steven Moss came home. Rhode shot him four times. Three out of the four shots were fatal.
Within about 20 minutes, 13 shots were fired at the three victims. Eight out of the 13 shots entered one of the victims brain or chest, any of the eight would have killed the them.
The two men then stole cash from Steven and Bryan's wallets before driving away.
Around 5:40 p.m.:
Gerri Ann Moss arrived home, discovered the bodies, and called 911.
Within a couple days, Rhode, age 18 and Lucas, age 19 were captured and arrested. The pair had been on a drinking and drug binge, and had burglarized several homes in the days leading up to the killings.
Rhode had moved from Louisiana to Georgia a few months before the slayings and did not know the Moss family. Lucas was a Jones County native and evidence at his trial indicated he may have known the girl and had visited the home one time before the murders.
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?
Ok, let me get this straight. The guy is sentenced to death and tries to kill himself, but rather than allow the guy to die they save his life and then refuse to kill him because he tried to do it himself. Something is wrong with our criminal justice system and I would say that something is frickin’ liberals.
Give me a Dr, a large supply of blood, a buckmark and a brick of .22.
I’ll fill every inch of his worthless limbs with lead, 40 grains at a time. Then I’ll let him heal. And repeat. He thinks he’s a hardass, he thinks he is merciless...he has no idea what barbarism is. He is a punk, a murderer of children.
The Warden should have had his happy ass drug to the death chamber and hooked right up. Just because he wants to die is no reason for us not to kill him like we were gonna do anyway.
Serious WTF !
ROFL
This sorry excuse for a man should not be allowed to commit suicide. He should be hung by the neck until dead in the town square. His body should be returned to the prison central yard and re-hung, the inmates marched passed in review. Leave his hide there for a few days to let the smell drive the point home.
20 years to kill this SOB. I’m all for appeals, but really, 20 years?
Put him on an intravenous Capsaicin drip and leave him there. He’ll wish he went for the table. The POS is a walking endorsement for retroactive abortion.
Serious question...
What would it take to bring back public executions in this country?
The guards got there too fast. They should have gone to breakfast and checked him when they got back.
Okay, how’s that even possible? Somebody’s getting fired. That’s the one job the prison has when he’s that close, to watch him, as Oscar Wilde put it, “lest himself should rob their scaffold of its prey.” And they blew it.
Damn....Those are exceptionally brutal crimes....
He’d rather die of cuts?
Ok, death by a thousand cuts then.
We should have a lottery...
Seriously.
I think I would pay good money for a chance to off the MF.
But, then, I am a such a heartless bastard when it come to things like this...
Ha! LMBO! That’s a novel approach to avoiding the DEATH penalty. “Attempt” suicide....Right!
Now some slimy Leftist Activist Judge will find him mentally incompetent, commute his sentence, remand him to a cushy “prison psych ward,” and they’ll spend YEARS asking him what his Daddy did to him to make him turn out so bad... Or how his Mommy neglected him that made him feel compelled to do all those bad things he did to others... Or what policies those Wascally Wepubwecans passed that caused circumstances that forced him to commit such crimes... Or how the Capitalist system created such an unfavorable climate for his socio-economic class that he snapped under the pressure and it’s all society’s fault — or at least the RICH in society....
Now don’t we ALL wish someone with a weapon has SHOT the SOB during the commission of his crime and SAVED us ALL the time, money AND troubles?!