Alabama | Former HPD officer in court, state seeking death penalty

McCoy is charged with capital murder in the Jan. 7 shooting death of Courtney Spraggins, his 24-weeks pregnant girlfriend. At the time of the murder, McCoy was a Huntsville Police Department officer. He has since been fired.

Former Huntsville Police Department Officer David McCoy made his 1st court appearance on Friday since being charged with capital murder.

McCoy was in a Madison County courtroom today dressed in a jail uniform.

McCoy is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, 26-year-old Courtney Spraggins in mid-January. McCoy was off-duty at the time and the murder occurred at the Weston Ranch Apartments.

Madison County District Attorney Tim Gann said that the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.

“You’ve got a young woman who has her life ahead of her and an unborn child,” Gann said. “This is clearly a case we will seek the death penalty on.”

According to investigators, McCoy admitted to shooting Spraggins, but doesn’t remember how the event unfolded. McCoy said that he remembers firing the gun, running into his apartment, changing his clothes and hiding the gun in the top drawer of his dresser.

McCoy then called the non-emergency number saying that he heard gunshots in the area. Officers arrived to the scene minutes later and found Spraggins slumped over in the front seat of her car with a gunshot wound to the head.

“I watched the body cam footage of the officers on scene,” Gann said. “Nothing but professionalism. It took them about 30 minutes to figure out something wasn’t just right.”

McCoy claimed that he had never seen Spraggins before, but officers soon found a picture of McCoy in Spraggins’ car. Officers then took McCoy into custody.

Prosecutors plan to seek two more capital murder charges against McCoy.

In the interview, according to investigators McCoy says that he did it.

McCoy’s defense attorney Brian Clark said McCoy did not state he did it on purpose and it could have been an accident.

Source: WSFA news, Staff, January 29, 2022

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

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China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

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20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

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Singapore executes man for trafficking 1kg of cannabis

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

Florida | Man avoids death penalty in Daytona Beach triple murder

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

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