Jury reaches verdict in capital murder resentencing

May 21—A Morgan County jury on Monday recommended Corey Maples, convicted of capital murder almost 30 years ago for shooting and killing two friends, be sentenced to life without parole.

"He's guilty," defense attorney Casey Secor said during closing arguments Friday. "He deserves to be punished. It's just what form that punishment takes, which is entirely up to each and every one of you individually."

Maples was friends with Stacy Terry and Barry Robinson before he shot them as the pair sat in Terry's Chevrolet Camaro outside Maples' residence on the night of July 7, 1995. The three had been playing pool together in Decatur, and there were apparently no problems between them preceding the attack, according to both the prosecution and the defense.

Afterward, Maples took Terry's wallet and Camaro and was later apprehended in Nashville. Because of the aggravating factor of first-degree robbery, Maples was charged with capital murder and convicted in 1997. At 21 years old, he was sentenced to death at the 10-2 recommendation of a jury.

Maples fought for the right to appeal his punishment all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. A federal court in 2022 threw out Maples' death sentence due to ineffective assistance of counsel. During the three-week resentencing trial, jurors only had two options for Maples: life without parole or death.

Circuit Judge Charles Elliott has decided that he can overrule the jury's recommended sentencing if he so chooses. The practice of judicial override was abolished in the state in 2017 but was legal at the time of Maples' conviction.

"How much does murder weigh?" Alabama Assistant Attorney General Rich Anderson asked the jurors Friday. He encouraged them to consider the scales of justice as not something merely abstract, but tangible. "That's the decision you all have to make. You have to decide that because of a decision that man, Corey Maples, made 30 years ago."

Anderson reminded the jury that Maples dumped Robinson's body in a creek "like a sack of trash" and cashed a check from Terry's wallet as he fled to Nashville. Anderson appealed to the jurors' common sense and told them that they could decide whether the defense team's mitigating factors held any weight at all.

"Common sense is the perfect antidote to nonsense," he said. "You've heard plenty of nonsense from that witness stand this week. He was mad about things in his life that had nothing to do with those boys. Life is not fair. Does that make Corey Maples less deserving of punishment? No, it does not.

"Only one penalty is adequate to do justice in this case. That penalty, ladies and gentlemen, is death."

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Defense

Along with Secor, Maples' defense team includes national capital defense attorney Rebekka Higgs, as well as local attorneys Brian White and Christy Miller. For their closing argument, Secor spoke with a subdued — and, at times, almost quivering — voice, in contrast with Anderson's righteous indignation. Secor reminded the jury that both death and life without parole are appropriate punishments for capital murder under Alabama law.

"Yes, it (the murder) was a choice," he said. "A terrible choice."

Secor said it had been the defense team's job to offer the "whole picture" of Maples' life and thus "the whole truth." He said the prosecution didn't care what led up to the murders. Shifting gears, he told the jury that he saw a faded mural on the rear of Cross-eyed Owl Brewing the other day that read: "Put hope into a child's life."

"There seems to be a debate in this trial about whether or not childhood matters," he said. "Why do we make it a crime to abuse and neglect children? Because we know that it hurts them, and hurt children have an increased chance of hurting themselves or others."

Secor offered the jury another image. He said he recently went shopping to look for a Mother's Day card.

"Are there any cards here that represent the relationship Corey had with his parents?" he asked. "I couldn't find any. Turns out they don't make them."

Secor read a couple of cards he had picked out. He emphasized Maples' childhood trauma and recalled that experts had testified how such experiences can shape a person.

"Does it excuse anything?" he asked. "Absolutely not. But it had a huge impact on him."

Secor ran through scenes from Maples' childhood: A little boy crying for his mother until he was 10 years old; a little boy who was left in his father's truck in the parking lot of a bar at night for so long that he urinated himself; a little boy who was verbally abused and burned with cigarettes.

"The trauma primed his brain for addiction," Secor said. "He turned to drugs to try to distance his mind from that pain."

Secor told the jury that they would be sentencing Maples "the whole man," not just Maples the murderer.

"Death is never required," he said. "Not in this case, not in the worst case you can imagine. It means giving the death penalty to that little boy who watched his mother leave at 3 years old. That little boy is sitting right there in the body of a 50-year-old man."

Secor closed by appealing to the jurors' sense of mercy and compassion.

"And blessed are the merciful," he finished.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Matthews then stood for the prosecution's rebuttal.

"He had trauma in his life like we all have trauma in our lives," he said. "He's not a 3-year-old child. I think they've (the defense) been trying to paint a picture not really true."

Matthews suggested that Maples' trauma wasn't as severe as the defense team would have the jury believe. He reminded them that Maples' mother had testified and denied abusing him.

"It's plain and simple greed," Matthews said. "He wanted what Stacy Terry had, and he took it. We believe death is the only appropriate sentence."

Maples never showed remorse for his crimes, according to Matthews.

"True mitigation should be built on a foundation of remorse," he said. "He never said he's sorry."

Elliott gave the jury instructions before sending them off to deliberate. He reminded them that a previous jury had already proved the aggravating circumstance in the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

"If you are convinced that the aggravating circumstance outweighs the mitigating circumstances, your verdict will be death," he said.

The jury returned their verdict Monday afternoon: life without parole. Only three of the jurors had voted for death.

Elliott thanked them and scheduled a sentencing hearing — which typically wouldn't be required without judicial override — for Aug. 8. Maples will remain in Morgan County Jail until then.

"It's the outcome that we wanted, of the only two that were possible," White said after the verdict. "This is subject to what may happen in August. We're preparing for that now.

"The judge can accept this recommendation or override it. Naturally, we hope he accepts it."

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.