On March 26, 1984, in the U.S. state of Georgia, 23-year-old Robert Dale Conklin, a resident of Illinois who was then out on parole for armed robbery and burglary, murdered his homosexual lover, a 28-year-old lawyer named George Grant Crooks, by stabbing him to death with a screwdriver.
He then used a steak knife and other various types of knives to chop up the corpse of Crooks into pieces, and he packed up the body parts into trash bags and disposed of them outside his apartment.
[5][4] Fulton County Associate Medical Examiner Saleh Zaki conducted an autopsy on the body parts, and he found a total of eight stab wounds on the right side of the victim's neck were inflicted before death.
[8] A grand jury indicted Conklin for the murder and dismemberment of George Grant Crooks in his absence on April 3, 1984, and a warrant for his arrest was issued.
[20] On June 15, 1984, the 12-member jury (eight men and four women) issued their verdict, finding Conklin guilty of the murder of Crooks after less than an hour of deliberating over the case.
[30] During his incarceration on death row, Robert Dale Conklin spent his time attending church services behind bars, and he also managed to complete a bachelor of arts program offered by Western Illinois University.
[31] On June 27, 2005, Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker announced that a death warrant for Robert Dale Conklin was authorized by the Superior Court of Fulton County.
[34] Conklin additionally submitted an appeal for clemency to the state parole board of Georgia, seeking to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in response to the clemency hearing that he felt Conklin deserved to be executed.
[35][36] On July 12, 2005, several hours before he was slated to be executed, the state parole board refused to grant Conklin clemency and confirmed his death sentence.
[37] On the evening of July 12, 2005, 44-year-old Robert Dale Conklin was officially put to death via lethal injection at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.
[38][39] For his last meal, Conklin ordered a filet mignon steak wrapped in bacon; de-veined shrimp sautéed in garlic butter with lemon; a baked potato filled with sour cream, chives and bacon bits; corn on the cob; asparagus with hollandaise sauce; a buttered French baguette with goat cheese; cantaloupe; apple pie; vanilla bean ice cream and iced tea.