Conviction
During the trial, Cherry smiled and looked amused. He could be seen joking with his lawyers and several supporters, not appearing to believe that the legal system which had protected him up to that point would ultimately send him to jail. He was convicted on four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry attempted to appeal, but in October 2004 the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously upheld his conviction. The court rejected Cherry's claim that a delay of 37 years between his commission of the crime and his indictment in 2000 had resulted in an inherently unfair trial.
During his prison sentence, Cherry repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a malicious false campaign against him and he said that he was a "political prisoner" who was denied proper treatment.
He was originally taken to the Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery County, Alabama for intake. He was later moved to Holman Correctional Facility in Escambia County, Alabama.
On Wednesday October 13, 2004, Cherry was transferred from Holman Prison to Atmore Community Hospital in Atmore. During the same day an ambulance transported him from the Atmore hospital to a hospital in Montgomery.
Cherry died in the Kilby prison's hospital unit, on November 18, 2004 at the age of 74. He was survived by his fifth wife, Myrtle Cherry, two sons Herman Cherry, Wesley Cherry, and three daughters Sue Crawford, Theresa Johnston, and Karen Sunderland
Read more about this topic: Bobby Frank Cherry
Famous quotes containing the word conviction:
“Every man’s task is his life-preserver. The conviction that his work is dear to God and cannot be spared, defends him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The habit of arguing in support of atheism, whether it be done from conviction or in pretense, is a wicked and impious practice.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“The author’s conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)