DISCLAIMER : If you're under the age of 13, or if you're sensitive to murder, violence, and scary stuff in general, I recommend you don't read this for your own safety.

Hey everyone. It's Detective Noel bringing to you another scary crime story. This is a Story I learned about a few months ago in a documentary about Capital Punishment, which also featured the Story of Jimmy Lee Gray, who I did a Chapter on earlier in this Book. However, this Story also caught my interest and it isn't very popular and I think it needs more attention! Credit goes to Wikipedia and that documentary I watched for the information and with that out of the way, let's take a look at the Story of John Evans and Wayne Ritter.

John Louis Evans and Wayne Eugene Ritter were men who lived in Alabama and had no care or regard for anyone. Their lives were full of crime and they never felt anything when he committed their crimes. But not only would their careless attitudes make them two of the first men to be executed in Alabama since the United States' Reinstatement of the Death Penalty, but it would also cause a lot of controversy on whether or not the Death Penalty was cruel and unusual. This is the Story of John Evans and Wayne Ritter.

John Evans was born on January 4th 1950 in Beaumont, Texas and Wayne Ritter was born 4 years later on January 30th 1954. As Evans grew up, he became a career criminal which got him incarcerated at a Prison in Indiana. During his time in his first Prison, he met and befriended Ritter. The two men started planning a big crime marathon once they were released.

In 1976, Evans and Ritter were released from Prison, but instead of trying to improve their lives, they started their big crime marathon that lasted for two months. During their crime spree, they committed over thirty robberies, nine kidnappings, and two extortion schemes across seven States. The two men were already causing a lot of chaos across the Country, but little did anyone know that they had a plan to do something that was much worse than any other crime they ever did before...

On this day, 47 years ago, on January 5th 1977, the day after Evans' 27th Birthday, he and Ritter broke into a pawn shop in Mobile, Alabama. The shop was owned by a 33 year old father of two named Edward Assad Nassar. Nassar's two daughters were in the store with their father when Evans and Ritter broke in wielding a gun. Evans shot and killed Nassar while Nassar's daughters watched and screamed in horror...

Evans and Ritter stole several goods from the store including a new gun and fled the scene before police and paramedics could arrive. The two men carelessly left the gun they used to kill Nassar at the back of the store, which police were able to recover. Even though police were able to recover the gun Evans and Ritter owned, they weren't discovered until 2 months later on March 7th when they were caught in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The two men were arrested and charged with robbery and first degree murder and were quickly brought to trial in the State Circuit Court in Mobile the next month on April 26th 1977. Even though Evans pleaded guilty to his charges, his prosecutors refused to accept his guilty plea and sought the death penalty for both of them. Even though Evans pleaded guilty, he told the jury and the judge he actually wanted to be sentenced to death, saying he did not feel remorse for murdering Nassar, and saying if he was sentenced to life in prison instead, he would escape from prison and kill all the jury members. It took the jury less than 15 minutes to give Evans and Ritter what they wanted and sentenced both of them to death.

Evans' first execution date was scheduled for nearly 2 years after his trial on April 6th 1979. 4 days before his execution was scheduled to happen, Evans' mother Betty who represented her son petitioned to the U.S. District Court For The Southern District Of Alabama that her son's upcoming execution was unconstitutional since he wasn't convicted of his smaller offences. But the District Court dismissed Betty since she couldn't legally represent her son. Betty then appealed to the United States Court Of Appeals For The Fifth Circuit, which turned out to be successful as her son's conviction was invalidated. But 3 years later in 1982, the state of Alabama petitioned the Supreme Court Of The United States for Betty's petition to be overturned and the death penalty returned for her son, which was granted.

In July that year, Evans fired his lawyers and filed to dismiss all further appeals. The Court of Appeals accepted his motion on October 19th. During his time in prison however, Evans changed his mind about wanting the death penalty and appealed for a retrial, but the Alabama Supreme Court thought he still deserved the death penalty and rejected his appeal on February 18th 1983 and Evans' next execution date was scheduled for April 22nd 1983. Shortly before his execution, Evans was featured in an episode on the documentary show known as After School Special. The episode was called "Dead Wrong" where he shared his life story with younger people. Even though Evans never apologised for murdering Nassar, he pleaded for the audience not to make the mistakes he did that cost him his life.

John Evans and Wayne Ritter made the unthinkable choice of murder, and they now had to pay for what they did.

On this day, 40 years ago, at 8:20 PM on the evening of April 22nd 1983, 33 year old John Evans was taken to the death chamber in Holman Correctional Facility. Inside the death chamber was Alabama's famous electric chair painted in bright yellow known as "Yellow Mama". It was the first time Alabama had executed an inmate since 1965 due to several supreme court decisions which suspended executions in the United States until it was reinstated in 1976. Several people witnessed Evans' execution including his lawyer Russell Canan and reporter Mark Harris. Inside the death chamber, Evans was strapped to the chair and two electrodes were tied to his head and left leg and a black hood was placed over his head.

Once Evans was strapped in the chair, the Prison Warden turned the electricity on, causing 1,900 volts to pass through Evans' body when sparks and flames suddenly erupted from the electrode tied to his left leg. His body then started slamming against the straps holding him in the electric chair, and his fists could not stop clenching. The electrode then burst from the strap holding it in place. A large puff of greyish smoke and sparks poured out from under Evans' hood and an overpowering smell of burning flesh and clothing started filling the witness room. The scene lasted for 30 seconds before the Warden turned off the electricity and two doctors walked into the room to check Evans' heartbeat. Surprisingly though, Evans was still alive.

The electrodes on Evans' head and left leg were quickly adjusted and wrapped around him tighter. 10 minutes later at 8:30 PM, the Warden turned the electricity on a second time for 30 more seconds and more smoke was bursting from his electrodes. By that point, the burning smell was even worse. "The stench of burning flesh was nauseating." Russell Canan said. After the electricity was turned off a second time, the doctors walked back into the execution room to check Evans' heartbeat and shockingly, Evans was still alive.

At that point, Canan thought Evans was only being tortured and pleaded to stop his execution. The Prison Commissioner phoned the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace about Canan's pleas, but even Governor Wallace believed that Evans still deserved to die for what he did, so he rejected Canan's plea and told the Prison Officials to continue the execution until Evans was dead.

10 more minutes later at 8:40 PM, the Warden turned the electricity on for the third time for 30 more seconds. By this point, Evans' body was now charred and smouldering. After the Warden turned the electricity off, the doctors walked back into the execution room for the third time to check Evans' heartbeat, and after 24 minutes in the electric chair, John Evans was declared dead at 8:44 PM.

Over the last 40 years, Evans' execution has become highly controversial on whether or not the death penalty is humane or inhumane. A lot of people who are opponents of capital punishment including Evans' lawyer Russell Canan believed Evans suffered a cruel and unusual death. "John Evans was tortured tonight in the name of vengeance in disguise as justice." Canan said." On the other hand, a lot of people who support capital punishment believe a cruel and unusual death is what Evans deserved. "I thought a guillotine was a better punishment for him." Said reporter Mark Harris.

4 years later on August 28th 1987, Evans' crime partner, Wayne Ritter was executed at the age of 33.

It's been many years since John Evans and Wayne Ritter's crimes and executions, but they still leave a lot of terror and controversy in their wake.

But I think both of them deserved their punishments. Don't you?

The end.