Coley McCraney, a convicted murderer, has found a new home behind bars

OZARK, Ala — Dale County Sheriff Mason Bynum said that Coley McCraney has been sent to a state prison to serve the rest of his life term. This comes almost four months after a jury of his peers found him guilty.

Sheriff Bynum says that on Tuesday, July 18, his officers took McCraney to the Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery County. He was given to the Alabama Department of Corrections to take care of.

McCraney was found guilty of killing teens JB Beasley and Tracie Hawlett in the summer of 1999 after a two-week hearing in April. He was given a life sentence with no chance of getting out.

McCraney is now in central Alabama, but he and his legal team are still fighting for a new trial because a juror did something wrong.

Nearly a month after the decision came back, McCraney’s lawyers, David Harrison and Andrew Scarborough, asked for a new trial. They said that at least three jurors posted about the trial on social media, and one juror was seen on their smartwatch during the trial. Both of these things break the rules that jurors were told at the start of the hearing.

During a hearing on Monday, July 17, the state said that the jury’s behaviour did not affect the final decision and sentence, so there was no need for a new trial.

Dale County Judge William Filmore thought about the request after the meeting and is likely to make a decision soon.

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