Alabama officials are considering parole for a woman known as the “Lady Sundown Killer,” who was convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering a 13-year-old girl along with her husband in 1982.
Judith Ann Neelley, 58, will appear before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole Boards May 25, marking her second chance at parole since her 1999 death sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Neelley was convicted in 1983 of the murder of 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican, after she and her husband Alvin Neelley kidnapped the girl from a Georgia mall, sexually assaulted her, injected her with a plunger and fatally stabbed the girl. shot down.
During Neelley’s first parole hearing in 2018, officials deliberated for 55 seconds before rejecting her bid for liberty.
If she was granted parole next week, she would be immediately turned over to authorities in Georgia to serve a separate life sentence for the murder of another young woman alongside her husband, who died behind bars in 2005.
Judith Ann Neelley, 58, will appear before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole Boards May 25, marking her second chance at parole since her death sentence was commuted
Neelley was convicted in 1983 with husband Alvin Neelley of the murder of 13-year-old Lisa Ann Millican (top right of a family photo), who was abducted from a Georgia mall.
Alvin and Judith Neelley can be seen in an undated photo. The couple kidnapped, tortured and murdered two female victims, while having two-year-old twins at home
But even the possibility of Neelley being paroled in Alabama brings back painful memories for her victims’ families, who want the killer to serve her life sentence in Alabama.
“With every parole I fear it gets closer to Georgia,” Lisa’s sister-in-law Cassie Millican told the magazine last month. “She’s been here so long I’m afraid they’ll eventually send her to Georgia to serve her sentence.”
“Obviously we’re pushing for letters of protest again,” Cassie said. “On every parole [hearing]usually there will be less exposure.”
On Facebook, Cassie shared a letter from the Sheriff of Chattanooga County, Georgia, on behalf of the family of Neelley’s second victim, Janice Kay Chatman, who was kidnapped and murdered there in October 1982.
In the letter, Sheriff Mark A. Schrader strongly recommends that Neelley be denied parole in Alabama, but communicates that his deputies are waiting to immediately take her into custody to serve her sentence in Georgia in the event she is released.
The sickening story of Judith and Alvin Neelley’s crimes dates back to September 25, 1982, when the couple kidnapped young Lisa Ann Millican from Riverbend Mall in Rome, Georgia.
At the time of the crime, the Neelleys had two-year-old twins and Judith was pregnant with their third child.
Judith (left) and Alvin (right) Neelley’s crimes date back to September 25, 1982, when the couple kidnapped young Lisa Ann Millican from Riverbend Mall in Rome, Georgia
Judith Ann Neeley is photographed on October 19, 1984 at Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. Known as the infamous ‘Lady Sundown’ killer, she was the youngest American woman to receive the death penalty at trial
Judith Ann Neelley is seen on death row in 1984. In 1999, days away from execution, Alabama Governor Fob James commuted her death sentence
Sheriff Mark A. Schrader of Chattanooga has strongly recommended that Neelley be denied parole in Alabama, but said his deputies are waiting to take her into immediate custody
According to the Times-Journal, the Neelleys took 13-year-old Lisa to a motel in Franklin, Georgia, where she was raped and made to sleep naked on the floor.
The next day, after capturing their own young couple, the married killers took Lisa to the Five Points Inn in Scottsboro, Alabama, where Alvin raped her repeatedly over two days, and Judith beat her and handcuffed her in the bathroom.
The couple planned to kill the girl and dispose of her body and took Lisa to Little River Canyon in Fort Payne, where Judith injected the girl six times with a plunger.
Frustrated that the poison wasn’t killing the teen fast enough, Judith then shot the girl in the back and pushed her body into the canyon, the court heard.
After the brutal murder, the Neelleys drove to nearby Gadsden for breakfast.
Less than a month later, the killing spree continued in Rome, Georgia, when the Neelleys kidnapped 23-year-old Janice Chatman after she shot and wounded her fiancé John Hancock in early October 1982.
Janice was also taken to a hotel, tortured and sexually assaulted before the Neelleys killed her and dumped the body.
The murders were solved when the Neelleys were arrested on a bad check charge in Tennessee, and authorities connected Judith with telephone threats against a juvenile detention center in Rome where she once served time.
Coincidentally, Hancock, the surviving victim, was being interviewed about Janice’s kidnapping when he happened to hear recordings of the telephone threats and identified the voice as the woman who had shot him and kidnapped Janice.
Alvin eventually led investigators to Janice’s body and pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated assault in Georgia.
Only Judith was tried in Alabama for Lisa’s murder. She was found guilty there and sentenced to death by execution, and pleaded guilty in Georgia to life imprisonment.
Judith was only 18 at the time of the murders, making her the youngest woman in American history to be sentenced to execution.
In 1999, when she was days away from execution, Alabama Governor Fob James commuted Judith Neelley’s death sentence to life behind bars.
A 2003 Alabama law that prevented her from being eligible for parole was declared unconstitutional in March.
Center Frankie Mason, the mother of murder victim Lisa Ann Millican, speaks to reporters after Alabama’s 2018 parole board refused to release Neeley
Tina Millican, left, and Judy Bradley, both sisters of murder victim Lisa Ann Millican, are seen at the 2018 parole hearing. They strongly oppose Neelley’s new offer for parole next week
In 2018, Alabama officials quickly rejected Neelley’s parole offer after less than a minute of deliberation.
Calvin Millican said at the hearing that his sister’s murder devastated his family and that Neelley should have received the death penalty.
“Judith Ann Neelley is a very cruel, sick person and must take her punishment for killing, taking life,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
Tina Millican, Lisa Millican’s sister, also noted at the 2018 hearing that Neelley “is the true essence of evil.”
Members of the parole board heard dueling images of Neelley during the 30-minute hearing: that she was a cold-blooded person who killed for the sport or that she was an abused teenager dominated by an older, controlling husband.
“She loved to kill. She enjoyed the death of Lisa Millican,” said Mike O’Dell, a prosecutor who prosecuted Neelley.
But a lawyer representing Neelley told the board that Neelley was coerced into committing the crime by Alvin Neelley.
“To say Miss Neelley was brainwashed was a huge understatement. She looked more like a zombie,” Julian McPhillips said.
“There is no doubt that the crime committed was a dastardly and unthinkable crime that defies human comprehension,” McPhillips said.
“Miss Neelley totally agreed and will be incredibly ashamed and remorseful for what happened until the very last moment. She has often said that if she could have traded her own life for the victim’s, she would have.’