Frank James Coppola

Frank Joseph Coppola (February 25, 1944 – August 10, 1982), was a police officer from Portsmouth, Virginia who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 capital murder of Muriel Hatchell, although he maintained his innocence until his execution.[1]

Hatchell was bound with Venetian blind cords and then had her head slammed repeatedly into the floor, allegedly by Coppola, until she died. Coppola and his accomplices fled with $3,100 in cash and some rings from the crime scene. On September 26, 1978, Coppola was convicted of first-degree capital murder and sentenced to death in Virginia's electric chair. He waived his appeals and was executed on August 10, 1982,[2] the first person executed in Virginia since the Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976. He was also the first person executed in Virginia since 1962.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/AMR5105301.pdf Amnesty International report
  2. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19820811&id=E7wQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hpQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5782,3985224 Melbourne newspaper, The Age, August 11, 1982.

Sources

Preceded by
Steven Timothy Judy		 People executed in US Succeeded by
Charlie Brooks, Jr.
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