Timothy Carr

Timothy Don Carr (May 30, 1970 – January 25, 2005), a 34-year-old white male, was executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia on January 25, 2005. Carr was found guilty of the 1992 murder of Keith Patrick Young, a 17-year-old white male. Carr, who was 22 years old when he committed the capital crime, was sentenced to death on April 28, 1994.

On October 7, 1992, Carr was at a party in Macon, Georgia with his girlfriend, Melissa Leslie Burgeson, a 22-year-old white female, and Keith Young. The people at the party consumed alcohol and the juice from boiled hallucinogenic mushrooms and some also smoked marijuana. Later autopsy reports showed that Keith Young had no drugs other than alcoholic beverages in his system at the time of his death. Carr and Burgeson discussed robbing Young at the party.

In the early hours of the following day Burgeson took Young's car keys and talked him into letting her drive him home. Burgeson obtained Young's car keys claiming that he was too intoxicated to drive. She and Carr discussed illegally borrowing Young's gold 1986 Pontiac Grand Prix while they hoped he passed out but he didn't. They also knew that Young had just cashed his paycheck.

That morning Burgeson, Carr, Young, and a 16-year-old boy and girl left the party in Young's Grand Prix. Burgeson was driving, Young was in the front passenger seat, and the others were in the back seat. During the drive Carr displayed a knife to one of the juveniles and whispered to her that he was going to kill Young. There was also a baseball bat in the back seat of the car.

Burgeson later stopped the car on a dirt road some 15 miles northwest of Macon under the pretense that they were going to look for mushrooms and everyone exited except for the female juvenile. According to one of the juveniles, when Young was looking in the trunk Burgeson whispered to Carr to "do it now" whereupon Carr grabbed Young from behind and cut his throat twice. Burgeson said, "that ain't enough," and Carr stabbed Young several times in the chest. Young pleaded for his life but Carr laughed and said, "I'm going to kill you, boy."

After Young had fallen to the ground Carr rolled him over on his stomach and stabbed him several times in the lower back. The male juvenile then handed Carr the baseball bat and Carr beat Young in the head, fracturing his skull. Burgeson took $125 from Young's pockets and they returned to Macon where they dropped off the male juvenile and then drove to Tennessee where Carr, Burgeson, and the female juvenile were arrested after they crashed following a high-speed chase.

After receiving medical treatment at a local hospital Carr and Burgeson were placed in the back of a police car in which police had activated a hidden tape recorder. Their recorded conversation, in which Carr admitted killing Young, was introduced into evidence at Carr's trial. The knife used to stab Young was also discovered in Burgeson's purse and presented as evidence however Burgeson claimed that after Carr killed Young she hid it at his demand.

Following a jury trial in Monroe County, Carr was sentenced to death for the Young murder and to 20 years’ imprisonment for the theft of Young’s car. The day before his execution the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency. Accomplice Burgeson was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life in prison.

See also

• List of individuals executed in Georgia
• Capital punishment in the United States

References

• Timothy Don Carr. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
• Michelangelo Delfino and Mary E. Day, Death Penalty USA 2005 - 2006, (2008), 31-32.
• Carr v. State (1997) 480 S.E.2d 583.
• Head v. Carr (2001) 544 S.E.2d 409.