Larry Gene Heath

Larry Gene Heath

I have often stated that while on the surface my obsession seems to be with true crimes, that it is the justice system and the behavior of criminals that interest me the most. Of course there are the cases in which I disagreed with a verdict from a jury but I think there are only a few that while I agree the defendant is guilty, I believe the steps taken to get that verdict, or a verdict that was sought have crossed lines that put all American's at risk.

Two of the more high profile cases in which I feel this way are the Timothy Hennis and the Drew Peterson case. Hennis was convicted, and then later acquitted of the murders of a young mother and two of her children. It made waves because it seemed so similar to the Jeffrey MacDonald Case that took place in the early 1970's and they were both committed at or near Fort Bragg. Hennis was acquitted in 1989, re-joined the military and retired in 2004. In 2006 the military took him out of retirement and returned him to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to try him in a military court. They now had DNA linking Hennis to the crimes. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death. As long as we believe the DNA in this case then there is no question that Hennis was guilty. I take issue with the fact that because he had served his country, by the way without any more criminal activity what so ever, they were allowed to take an extra step to get him.

Then there is the Drew Peterson case. I think most who know the facts of that case believe that he was guilty not just in the murder of his second wife but the disappearance of his third wife. Since his murder conviction he has also been tried and convicted for attempting to hire someone to murder the prosecutor in his case. But, again, for me it was the steps that were taken to get the murder conviction. The state of Illinois even enacted what they called “Drew's Law” to be able to get evidence admitted into the case that otherwise would not have been allowed. Everyone has a constitutional right to face their accuser and to have that accuser questioned. In this case one of Drew's alleged accusers was his missing wife, Stacey. The new law allowed for a minister to testify that Stacey had told him that Drew had confessed to her in the murder of his second wife. Not only is this testimony considered to be hearsay and would not have been allowed in any other trial, but there is the “face the accuser” thing. Regardless the new law allowed that testimony and was considered to be instrumental in his conviction.

And then I came across the case of Larry Gene Heath. I was doing a search to add names to my list of cases to study and was in a section where there was a list of people who had been executed. Of course I do not write down every single case I come across but I will generally do a quick search to get the gist of the case. I knew right away that this was one that I wanted to dig more into. It was not because a man was accused of hiring people to murder his pregnant wife or the fact that he pleaded guilty to the crime. No, it was because while the crime began in one state and the victim was murdered in another that both states decided to prosecute him for the same murder. What was even more surprising to me is that the United State Supreme Court agreed with the lower courts and not only allowed it to happen, but allowed him to be executed for it. The Supreme Court stated that due to “the doctrine of dual sovereignty” the act of in which the state of Alabama indicted Larry Gene Heath in the murder of his wife, Rebecca, after he had accepted a guilty plea and life sentence in Georgia for her murder was completely legal.

The number one rule in law is jurisdiction. That is how it is determined what state, or even county, has the power to bring charges against someone. Sometimes it can get sketchy when it is believed that the federal government can also claim to have this power. This is where the doctrine of dual sovereignty comes in. It was basically to stop the “over reach” of the federal government giving states more power, but in the same respect they have them each their own power. We hear about cases all the time in which a crime is carried into more than one state. Where I live technically I can hear it nearly on a daily basis. I literally live in what I call a true “tri-state” area. I live in Indiana but can be in Kentucky in five minutes and Illinois in less than thirty. It is nothing to hear about a police chase on the news that may have started in one state, gone to another, and even sometimes go back to the original state. When that happens you often hear that law enforcement from the second state join in on the chase because now a crime (for example speeding) has now been committed in their state even though it began in the other. Even more serious crimes, such as this one are fairly common, especially when the location is so close to the border of another state. This is not the first case in which I have come across in which a kidnapping has occurred in one state, or especially jurisdiction, and the murder occur in another and yet, it is the first case that I can recall in which both states decided to prosecute. In general this does not happen because trials cost money, money that states and counties do not generally want to waste when another jurisdiction is prepared to take a case to trial.

There is a part of me that would like to think that this whole idea of duel sovereignty would be okay if say the first jurisdiction failed to get a conviction in a case in which the defendant was clearly guilty. But then that leads us back to my issues with other cases and where you can have investigators or prosecutors with “tunnel vision” who will do whatever it takes until they get what they want. Even still that was not the case here.

On August 31, 1981 twenty-one year old Rebecca Heath was nine months pregnant when she was kidnapped from her Phenix City Alabama home. Later that morning her body would be found in her car on the side of the road in Troup County Georgia. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. The male child she was carrying had also died. Five days later her husband, Larry Gene Heath was arrested and charged with her murder in Georgia. Most reports that you come across will mention that Heath had admitted to meeting two men, Gregory Lumpkin and Charles Owens, on the night of the murder, and led them to his home. After giving them $2,000 that he had convinced his wife to sign for in a loan, Lumpkin and Owens then kidnapped Rebecca Heath and murdered her. However, three other people were also arrested. Their names were Denise Lambert, Sanders Williams and Jerry Wayne Heath. From what I can conclude Denise Lambert was allegedly “engaged” to Larry Heath and prosecutors say she was the motive behind Rebecca's murder as they planned to marry. Larry Heath also allegedly had possession of Lamberts truck on the night of the murder. As far as Jerry Wayne Heath I can only conclude that he was related in some way to Larry Heath. For his part is seems that Sanders Williams is pretty much a career criminal so I can only assume that he was more likely associated with Lumpkin and Owens, but I cannot say for sure.

The state of Georgia announced that they planned to seek the death penalty for Larry Heath, Gregory Lumpkin and Charles Owens. It looks as if the other three were being charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Later the state changed their mind when it came to Lumpkin and Owens and dropped the death penalty announcing they planned to jointly try the two men. Denise Lambert, Jerry Heath and Sanders Williams all pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges. I was unable to determine what they may have been sentenced to. If you do a search, even attempting to narrow it down, you are bombarded with information pertaining mainly Larry Heath and his court arguments. The Georgia Department of Corrections website only show current inmates in the system. However, I was able to determine that Sanders Williams received a ten year sentence for his plea because it appears that less than a month before the murder of Rebecca Heath Williams had committed an armed robbery. He was given a life sentence for that crime and remains in the Georgia Department of Corrections. With that being said as a current inmate his criminal history is available.

I cannot say for sure that the state followed through with their plan to try Lumpkin and Owens together but I can say that they were each convicted and given a life sentence. My research stated that Lumpkin was paroled in May of 2012 but Owens is still in the system. The Georgia website is not one of the better ones but then again it is not the worse I have seen. Under Owens, who I did find at least one appeal that he had filed, there is no date listed showing if or when he may be eligible for parole.

On February 10, 1982 Larry Gene Heath accepted a plea deal with the prosecutors in Georgia for a life sentence in order to avoid the death penalty. Three months later on May 5, 1982 the state of Alabama indicted Larry Heath and charged him with capital murder as it had occurred during a kidnapping that had happened in their state. They too were seeking the death penalty. It should be noted that Larry Heath was the only person involved in the kidnapping and murder of his wife that were charged by authorities in Alabama. Immediately defense attorney sought out to have the charges dropped arguing that double jeopardy applied considering that he had already pleaded guilty for the same murder and was serving a sentence in Georgia. It does not appear that it took long for the courts to rule against him. Whether Larry Heath took the case to trial or simply pleaded guilty hoping that the judge would be lenient is not clear. January 12, 1983 is the date in which is said to be his conviction in Alabama. It was said that the sole aggravating factor, which had qualified the case for the death penalty, was the kidnapping that had occurred and that the sole mitigating factor was his plea deal and conviction in Georgia. I am sure the latter was more to show that he had taken responsibility for his actions in the crime. However, that did not prevent him from still receiving a death sentence. The state of Alabama executed Larry Heath on March 20, 1992.

While I disagree on the process that took place here, despite the Supreme Courts 7-2 ruling for the state, I must admit that there are a few cases I think many could agree that this would not necessarily be a bad thing if it could apply. For example I would gander to guess that many would like to have seen Casey Anthony be tried again, especially in another state. The problem with this thinking however is that there is always going to be that one case in which we do not think it fair, such as this one. Sure, Larry Gene Heath was one of the lowest of the low of people and he was apparently and obviously guilty, but even criminals have rights and when we start changing them or modifying them for the guilty, what stops us from doing the same for the innocent?