Following his death sentence for the 1979 murder, it was overturned by the Supreme Court of California because his lawyer had not consented to a guilty plea.

He was sentenced to death a third and final time in 1989 and was executed in 2001 at San Quentin State Prison via lethal injection.

[2] Massie was born on December 24, 1941,[3] in Virginia to a 15-year-old girl and a man who had married her to avoid being charged with statutory rape.

At age 11, Massie was sent to the Beaumont School in Virginia for truant and runaway boys, where pupils were whipped with a leather belt if they misbehaved.

[4] On the evening of January 7, 1965, Massie approached a man who was getting out of a car outside his home in West Covina, California.

As couple Morris and Mildred Weiss returned to their San Gabriel home, Massie confronted them.

[5] On January 15, Massie encountered a man named Frank Patti at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.

In a recorded statement, he admitted to committing all of the crimes, including the fatal shooting of Mildred Weiss, whom he had shot in a failed robbery.

[2] On January 3, 1979, Massie entered a San Francisco liquor store and began robbing the owner, 61-year-old Boris G. Naumoff.

[5] On January 4, at around 10:00 p.m., officers from the San Francisco Police Department captured Massie as he was driving his car.

The justices overturned his conviction and death sentence as the court ruled that Massie could not plead guilty against the advice of his lawyer.

[8][9] Massie was executed in the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison via lethal injection[10] and was pronounced dead at 12:33 a.m.[11] His last meal was two vanilla milkshakes, extra crispy french fries, extra crispy fried oysters, and soft drinks.