Robert Glen Coe

Infobox person
name=Robert Glen Coe


birth_date=birth date|1956|04|15
birth_place=Hickman, Kentucky
death_date=dda|2000|04|19|1956|04|15
known_for=Criminal transgressions
death_place=Nashville, Tennessee
death_cause=Execution-Lethal injection

Robert Glen Coe (April 15, 1956 – April 19, 2000), born in Hickman, Kentucky, was convicted of the rape and murder of eight-year-old Cary Ann Medlin, and later executed for the crime.

Kidnapping and Murder

On September 1, 1979, Cary Ann Medlin and her step brother were riding their bicycles in the neighborhood near their home in Greenfield, Tennessee. Robert Coe pulled up next to them and began to talk to them, acting as if he knew Cary's father and needed directions to his house. Cary got into Coe's car to help him, and she was never seen alive again. As soon as she was reported missing, friends and neighbors in the close-knit community began a massive search to locate Cary or the man whose car she was last seen in. The following day, her body was found at the end of a road on the outskirts of town. An autopsy revealed that she had been sexually assaulted.

Coe had a long history of drug abuse, mental problems, and exposing himself in public. Shortly after the crime he told family members that he had killed someone, but they initially did not believe him. After hearing about the murdered girl, some of Coe's family members started to help him evade capture by buying him a bus ticket to Georgia, but another notified the police. Coe was captured at the bus station.

Confession

Coe was arrested and confessed to the murder, giving a detailed description of the crime. Coe confessed that he drove Cary to an isolated spot on the outskirts of town and then raped her in his car. After raping her, he then became angry at her when she said to him "Jesus loves you" and decided he was going to murder her. He went around to her side of the car and yanked her out of the car by her throat. He choked the eight year-old until she turned blue, but he could not strangle her. He then told her to walk down the road and while he walked behind her, he pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed her in the throat. She fell to the ground, grasping at her throat, but quickly bled to death.

Execution

On April 19th, 2000, 21 years after the crime, he was executed in Nashville, Tennessee by lethal injection. He became the first person to be executed by the State of Tennessee since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated.

See also

* List of individuals executed in Tennessee
* Capital punishment in the United States

Sources

* [http://www.state.tn.us/correction/newsreleases/tnexecutions.htm TN Executions] . "Tennessee Department of Correction". Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
* [http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/usexecute.htm Robert Glen Coe] . "Clark County Prosecutor". Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
* Lawrence Buser. [http://www.newgomemphis.com/newgo/special/coe/19coe3.htm Tennessee executes Coe] . "The Commercial Appeal". Retrieved on 2007-08-17.

US-crime-bio-stub

Persondata
NAME= Coe, Robert Glen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH=1956-04-15
PLACE OF BIRTH=Hickman, Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH=dda|2000|04|19|1956|04|15
PLACE OF DEATH=Nashville, Tennessee