LUKE WOODHAM

'Luke Woodham' (born February 5 1981) is a convicted American murderer, and a former resident of Pearl, Mississippi, who killed three people, including his own mother, and wounded seven in 1997. He is serving life in prison.

Contents

Murder of Mother

October 1: Shooting at Pearl High School

Gun Control

Charges

References

External links

Murder of Mother

On October 1 1997 Woodham, then 16, brutally beat and stabbed his mother, Mary Woodham, to death. At his trial he claimed he could not remember killing his mother.

October 1: Shooting at Pearl High School

Woodham drove his mother's car to his high school. Wearing a blue denim jacket, he made no attempt to hide his rifle. When he entered the school, he walked toward Lydia Dew and shot Dew as well as Christina Menefee, his former girlfriend. Both girls died. Pearl High School Band director, Jeff Cannon, was standing 5 feet from Dew when she was fatally shot. He went on to wound 7 others before Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, retrieved a .45 pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham while he was trying to drive off campus. When Myrick asked Woodham of his motive, he replied "Life has wronged me, sir". Woodham had been planning to drive to the Pearl Middle School to continue his murderous rampage, only Myrick's intervention prevented this from happening.
Minutes before he started the shooting, he gave the following message to a friend:

"I am not insane, I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society, push us and we will push back. ... All throughout my life, I was ridiculed, always beaten, always hated. Can you, society, truly blame me for what I do? Yes, you will. ... It was not a cry for attention, it was not a cry for help. It was a scream in sheer agony saying that if you can't pry your eyes open, if I can't do it through pacifism, if I can't show you through the displaying of intelligence, then I will do it with a bullet."^[1]

Gun Control

Myrick, the assistant principal, was a former Army Officer and had a valid Concealed Pistol License, authorizing him to carry a handgun; however, due to the law, Myrick was not allowed to carry his pistol while on school property. When Woodham began shooting in the school, Myrick ran over 1/4 mile to his truck to retrieve his weapon. He then sprinted back to the school, where he confronted Woodham.

Charges

Woodham confessed to shooting his classmates, but as before mentioned, he claimed to not remember killing his mother. He pleaded insanity, but the jury rejected the insanity defense, and instead found him guilty.
A separate jury in Philadelphia, Mississippi, convicted Woodham of murdering his mother. He was sentenced to life in prison for that crime. Defense attorneys argued in both trials that Woodham was legally insane at the time of the slayings.

References

1. Virginia Tech: Is the Scene of the Crime the Cause of the Crime?, ''20-04-2007''. Ames, Mark. AlterNet.

External links

★ Court TV Online - Mississippi vs Woodham

★ Woodham Updates (Final conviction)

★ CNN - Teen guilty in MIssissippi school-shooting

★ Mississippi Department of Corrections file on Luke Woodham