Woodward v. State

PRATHER, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

I. INTRODUCTION

¶ 1. This capital murder ease arises from the July 23, 1986, rape and murder of twenty-four-year-old Rhonda Holliman Crane (a volunteer, court-appointed, special advocate for children in the Jackson County Youth Court). Crane was traveling alone on Highway 29 in Perry County to meet her parents, who were camping at Flynt Creek Water Park. The appellant, Paul Everette Woodward, who was driving a logging truck, forced her vehicle to stop. He ordered- her into his truck at gunpoint, and drove her to a secluded spot. He took her into the…