Luke Woodham
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Luke Woodham (born February 5, 1981) is a convicted American murderer, and a former resident of Pearl, Mississippi who in 1997 killed 3 people, including his own mother, and wounded 7. He is serving life in prison.
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[edit] Murder of Mother
On the 1st of October 1997 Luke Woodham, then 16, brutally beat and stabbed his mother, Mary Woodham to death. When put on trial in court, he claimed to have not remembered killing his mother.
[edit] October 1: Shooting at Pearl High School
Woodham drove his mother's car to his high school, wearing a long coat to hide his rifle. When he entered the school, he began firing rampantly, killing his ex-girlfriend Christina Menefee and her friend Lydia Dew, and wounding 7 others before Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, retrieved a pistol from his car parked off school grounds and subdued Woodham. When Myrick asked Woodham of his motive, he replied "Life has wronged me, sir".
[edit] 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, 50-year-old Mary Woodham, who was beaten and stabbed. He was sentenced to life in prison for that killing. Defense attorneys argued in both trials that Woodham was legally insane at the time of the slayings.
