Christopher McCowen

Last updated

Christopher M. McCowen is an American man convicted of murder. McCowen was found guilty in the 2002 rape and murder of Christa Worthington, a former fashion writer whose family had lived in Truro, Massachusetts, for generations. McCowen was charged with the crimes in April 2005, more than three years after the discovery of Worthington's body in her Truro home on January 6, 2002. [1]

McCowen had lived on Cape Cod since about 1998 and had been a garbage collector whose regular route included Worthington's home. McCowen was charged on the basis of genetic fingerprinting and incriminating statements he made during a police interview. On November 16, 2006, he was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated rape, and aggravated armed burglary. He was sentenced to life without parole. [1]

In December 2010, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied an appeal for a new trial. [2]

Related Research Articles

In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law. In civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. Variation in common law countries is the peremptory plea, which may take the specific forms of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict. These doctrines appear to have originated in ancient Roman law, in the broader principle non bis in idem.

Barry Michael George is an English man who was found guilty of the murder of English television presenter Jill Dando and whose conviction was overturned on appeal.

Christa Worthington was a United States fashion writer who worked for Women's Wear Daily, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, and The New York Times. She was also a co-author of several books on fashion and formerly dated Stan Stokowski, the oldest son of Gloria Vanderbilt and Leopold Stokowski.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Keith Coleman</span> American murderer

Roger Keith Coleman was a convicted murderer and rapist from Grundy, Virginia, US, who was executed for the rape and murder in March 1981 of his sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy. That day, he had been laid off from work.

Woo Bih Li is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court.

Tay Yong Kwang is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 1997, appointed Judge in 2003, and appointed Judge of Appeal in 2016. He was noted for being the presiding judge in several notable cases that shocked the nation and made headlines in Singapore.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom</span> 2007 carjacking, rape, and murder of a couple in Knoxville, Tennessee

Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.

Christa Gail Pike is an American convicted murderer, and the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was 20 when convicted of the torture murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, which she committed at age 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Blair (serial killer)</span> American serial killer

Terry Anthony Blair is an American serial killer who was convicted of killing seven women of various ages in Kansas City, Missouri, though investigators believe he may have additional unidentified victims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Costa</span> American serial killer

Antone Charles "Tony" Costa was an American serial killer who was active in and around the town of Truro, Massachusetts from 1968 to 1969, with some suspected murders occurring as far back as 1966.

Rape by deception is a situation in which the perpetrator deceives the victim into participating in a sexual act to which they would otherwise not have consented, had they not been deceived. Deception can occur in many forms, such as illusory perceptions, false statements, and false actions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Elkins</span> American wrongfully convicted for murder and rape

Clarence Arnold Elkins Sr. is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the rape and assault of his wife's niece, Brooke Sutton. He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of his wife's six-year-old niece who testified that Elkins was the perpetrator.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Madison</span> American serial killer and sex offender on death row

Michael Madison is an American convicted serial killer and sex offender from East Cleveland, Ohio who is known to have committed the murders of at least three women over a nine-month period in 2012 and 2013. He was arrested and charged with the crimes in 2013 and was sentenced to death in 2016. Madison is currently being held on death row.

The Vanderbilt rape case is a criminal case of sexual assault that occurred on June 23, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee, in which four Vanderbilt University football players carried an unconscious 21-year-old female student into a dorm room, gang-raped and sodomized her, photographed and videotaped her, and one urinated on her face.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Angela Samota</span> 1984 murder in Texas, US

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr, who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

Peter Manso was an American writer and journalist known for definitive biographies on Jackie Stewart, Norman Mailer and Marlon Brando.

David Smith is an English repeat murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer who came to national prominence in 1999 when he was convicted of murdering a sex worker six years after having been acquitted of an "almost identical" murder. Cleared of the murder of 33-year-old west London sex worker Sarah Crump in 1993, Smith was found guilty in 1999 of the killing of 21-year-old Paddington sex worker Amanda Walker. Smith has since been linked to a number of other murders of sex workers across Britain.

References

  1. 1 2 Deutsch, Gail; Effron, Lauren (28 November 2017). "Man convicted in Christa Worthington murder: 'I'm not guilty of anything'". ABC News. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  2. Court denies appeal for man convicted of Cape writer’s murder Archived 2012-08-25 at the Wayback Machine . Boston Herald. December 10, 2010.