Published: May 14, 2008 10:02 am

Jury takes a little more than 2 1/2 hours to return sentence
By Angela Weatherford, Athens Daily Review

After seven days of testimony, Randall Wayne Mays made it clear on Tuesday that he had no interest in the punishment a jury was about to give him for the capital murder of Henderson County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Ogburn.

392nd District Judge Carter Tarrance advised the convicted cop killer he didn’t have to listen to what was said next: that Mays is to be executed for his crime.

A Henderson County jury took two hours and 34 minutes to determine Mays is a future danger to society and that there is no reason he should be spared from the death penalty. When the verdict was read by Tarrance, a collective exhale was heard in the courtroom.

The message to police officers, many of whom were co-workers and friends of Ogburn, was clear.

“If you kill a policeman, you’re going to die,” said Jim Langford, a deputy with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department.

Read the entire article HERE.