Execution Report: John Moody

John Glenn Moody, 46, was executed by lethal injection on 5 January 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the rape, robbery, and murder of a woman in her home.

On Sunday, 3 July 1988, Moody, then 35, raped Maureen Maulden, 77, in her home in Abilene. He then beat her with a fireplace brush and strangled her with a telephone cord. He stole the victim's purse, wallet, and two rings. Maulden's sister, Mildred Adams, found her body the next evening.

Moody was arrested for public intoxication about three hours after the body was discovered. He had the murder victim's rings in his possession. His fingerprint was found in the victim's blood on the telephone used to strangle her. Furthermore, a witness provided a license plate number to a pickup truck seen leaving Maulden's home; five of the six numbers matched Moody's pickup.

Maulden, a widow whose husband died in 1978, had previously hired Moody to do yard work and odd jobs for her. Adams had introduced and recommended him to her.

Moody had two previous convictions for burglary in Texas. He served five months of a 5-year sentence in 1986 and seven months of another 5-year sentence in 1987, receiving parole both times. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.) He also had a total of 19 previous convictions in Ohio and West Virginia.

At Moody's punishment hearing, his wife, Lynn, testified that he had molested her ten-year-old daughter.

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