On the evening of January 26, 1995, a robbery at Roy’s Bait Shop in Griffin, Georgia, ended with the store’s owner, 52-year-old Ed Allen, shot in the chest and later dying of internal bleeding from a pierced left lung. Around 8:45 p.m., a man identified as Frederick Whatley entered with a .32 caliber silver revolver, forced employee Tommy Bunn to lie face-down and pressed the gun to Bunn’s head while demanding money. Allen filled a paper sack, which Whatley took before firing two shots; one struck Allen, the other glanced off the countertop and missed Bunn.

As Whatley left, he forced Ray Coursey into a car to use as a getaway driver. Despite his wound, Allen retrieved a hidden .44 caliber handgun, ran to the front of the store and exchanged gunfire with Whatley, who fled on foot and dropped the torn paper sack. Police later found Whatley with a bleeding leg wound and the .32 revolver under a mattress; bloody clothing and Whatley’s palm print were linked to the scene. Whatley was arrested, convicted of Allen’s murder, and sentenced to death.