The Georgia Supreme Court sided against a woman facing the death penalty in a
Peach County murder case.
In the Peach County case, justices found that Lillian Walker of Montezuma
prematurely filed a motion seeking acquittal on the grounds that her right to a
speedy trial was violated.
Walker is accused of the stabbing deaths of her 85-year-old Aunt Lillian Graves
and her 65-year-old cousin, Agnes Stewart, both of Fort Valley, in June 2009.
In the attack on the women in their home on Fort Valley’s Daniel Drive, Walker
allegedly rifled through their purses to steal cash, checks, credit cards and
prescription drugs. Walker also was accused of stealing Graves’ Jeep Cherokee.
Graves, a retired nurse, had recently turned 85. Stewart, a retired Peach
County High School teacher, was a deacon at St. Peter AME Church in Fort Valley
and a former president of Fort Valley’s Habitat For Humanity chapter.
In the Houston County murder case, justices upheld the conviction of Bobbie
Charles Shank on malice murder and related charges in the June 27, 1996, attack
on a husband and wife in their Warner Robins home.
Shank was convicted of bludgeoning to death 26-year-old Mark Garner after
Garner refused to sell him some marijuana because Shank already owed Garner
$450. Shank attacked Garner with an instrument like a “machete or 2-headed ax,”
the ruling stated. Shank hacked Garner at least 7 times in the head before
Shank turned to Garner’s wife, Tracy Garner, who survived the brutal attack.
(source: The Macon Telegraph)