He was sentenced to death for the murders of his estranged wife Mildred and her mother, Chessie Wilkerson,[1] which he committed on September 20, 1977.

After threatening his estranged wife of 28 years, Mildred Godfrey, with a knife and tearing her clothes during a drunken argument on September 5, Mildred left their house, secured a warrant against Godfrey charging him with aggravated assault, and officially filed for divorce, after which she moved into her mother's home.

[4] Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice William J. Brennan Jr. concurred with Stewart's opinion and added that, while death penalty sentencing should require stricter sentencing guidelines, the death penalty was inherently unconstitutional and in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

[4] Chief Justice Warren E. Burger dissented, arguing that the plurality's decision would lead to more arbitrary enforcement of the death penalty due to the law being imposed on a case-by-case basis.

Justice Byron White filed a second dissenting opinion arguing that Georgia law was sufficiently strict in ensuring juries would not disproportionately impose the death penalty for crimes that did not warrant it, and White also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court should not interfere with Georgia Supreme Court decisions when the latter was "responsibly and consistently interpreting state law"; Justice William Rehnquist joined in White's dissent.

By October 1980, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated all six inmates' death sentences,[5] although Godfrey would still receive a re-sentencing hearing the next year.