Troy Leon Gregg

Troy Leon Gregg (1953 – July 29, 1980) was the first condemned individual whose death sentence was upheld by the United States Supreme Court after the Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia invalidated all previously enacted death penalty laws in the United States. Gregg was convicted of having murdered Fred Edward Simmons and Bob Durwood Moore in order to rob them. The victims had given him and another man, Dennis Weaver, a ride when they were hitchhiking. The crime occurred on November 21, 1973.

In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held that the State of Georgia could constitutionally put Gregg to death.

However, the night before his set date for execution, together with three other condemned murderers, Timothy McCorquodale, Johnny L. Johnson, and David Jarrell, Gregg escaped from Georgia State Prison in Reidsville in the first death row breakout in Georgia history. Dressed in homemade correctional officer uniforms, complete with fake badges, the four had sawed through their cells' bars and then left in a car parked in the visitors' parking lot by an aunt of one of them. Gregg was beaten to death later that night in a bar fight in North Carolina. The other escapees were captured three days later.

See also

• List of United States death row inmates

External links

• Georgia Supreme Court opinion giving details of the case
• Murderpedia Entry