U.S. Executes Lynda Lyon Block — Alabama’s Last Execution by Electric Chair

May 10, 2002, 12:1 minute in the morning. Admore, Alabama. Inside the correctional center Holman, a woman is sitting on a bright yellow chair. It has the completely shaved head. her dolls They are tightly fastened with straps. The room is absolutely silent. A officer leans towards her and He asks if he has any last words.

She looks ahead at a single word, no. Her name is Linda Leon Block and in just a few minutes will make history, not for the life he lived, but by death that you are about to face. that chair yellow had already ended 177 lives before yours. that night he would charge a more and after that night never would be used again.

 But before that electric current was activated, a police sergeant had to die in the Walmart parking lot. and the story of how Linda ended up in that chair will make you absolutely everything. A routine procedure, a parking lot, a bullet that no one saw come. Welcome back to our channel. This channel tells the story complete, not only the verdict, not only the execution, but each of the details.

 If you are new here, subscribe right now so you don’t get lost none. Let’s go back to the place where everything began. His name was Sergeant Roger Lamar Mley Jr. Worked for him opelica police department in Opelica, Alabama. He wasn’t the type of official who sought to appear in the headlines. I wasn’t looking for attention or recognition.

He started from the bottom as an officer patrol and ascended step by step with honest work day after day until obtaining the rank of sergeant supplies. His job was simple, keep the department supplied, keep everything going, show up and do the job no one else does I noticed more. And that was exactly what he did each and every day.

 Your colleagues knew him as the type man in whom you could always trust. Calm under pressure, respected for everyone around him. The type of person left without thinking two times. The morning of October 4, 1993, a younger officer needed a bulletproof vest. Roger handed him the yours without hesitation.

 left that station completely unprotected. I don’t know headed to a dangerous call. I was going to Walmart to pick up supplies for the department. A routine order nothing more. At home, his wife Guanita and his four children were waiting for him. Never returned. In the parking lot of that Walmart, a woman waved him to to stop.

 I had just seen a boy inside a red Ford Mustang move your lips behind the glass and say two words, “Help me!” Roger not He hesitated. He walked straight towards that automobile. What happens next is impossible to believe. To understand what It happened in that parking lot, first you have to understand who he really was Linda Sherry Lionblock and to what extent had fallen from the woman that some time it was.

 Linda was born on February 8, 1948 in Orlando, Florida. During the most of his adult life it seemed an exemplary citizen. He lived in Key West and dedicated himself completely to work community. She was secretary of the Local Animal Protection Society personally investigated cases of animal abuse. She was elected president from Friends of the Library, not one, but twice.

 She collaborated as a volunteer in a campaign for mayor. She was a mother from a cop scout. He edited a magazine. He loved classical music and opera. I preferred books to television and volunteering to social life. About him role was exactly the type of person that any community would like to have in greater quantity, but behind that image something had been brewing for years.

 More Linda later claimed that her mother had physically and emotionally abused her when I was a girl. He said that this relationship never healed. That early distrust of authority, towards systems and institutions never abandoned it. In 1983, At age 35 she married Carl Block, a almost 80 year old military veteran who He had lost his only son in a car accident.

Together they had a son, but marriage fell apart and They divorced in December 1991. She kept the last name Block. For then I had already entered into a relationship with George Sibor, a man who shared his growing belief that the United States government was an illegitimate force. Together they resigned to their citizens, they destroyed their driver’s licenses, certificates birth and social security cards.

They published a political magazine called Liberatus, whose objective was to overthrow the same government for which Linda some I had once worked as a volunteer. If They called themselves sovereign citizens, people who believed that no law federal or state applied to them. Court records confirm that for 1992 both were armed and both believed that no court in the country had authority some about them.

Linda and George were not just a couple, they were a unit united by their ideology. Each one pushed the other even further, each one made the other more bold and the further they went, the more dangerous they became. Then, in August 1992, His beliefs became violent because first time.

 Linda and George burst in by force in Carl’s apartment Block, Linda’s elderly ex-husband, who He was then approximately 79 years old. They grabbed him, tied him to a chair, They gagged his mouth so he couldn’t ask for help. His demand was simple, to stop disputing the ownership of his house in the legal process that followed in progress.

 Before leaving, Linda stabbed once in the chest. If They marched and left him tied there, bleeding alone Over time, the neighbors realized that something It was bad. They found Carl and They called for help. He survived. Both Linda and George were arrested and charged with assault aggravated against a person over 65 years. They declared no contest.

 If scheduled a sentencing hearing. They never showed up. Instead, They barricaded themselves inside the house George in Pine Hills, Florida, surrounded of weapons and ammunition. They sent by fax communicated to local channels news, declaring that they preferred to die rather than live as slaves. They warned that they expected the police broke into the property.

 The Authorities kept their distance. The operation never occurred. Under the protection of That night, Linda and George disappeared. They had three guns in the Mustang, two semi-automatic rifles and one rifle M14. He was also in that car. Linda’s 9-year-old son. A decal on the rear bumper of the car said, “A woman is not a woman without a weapon.

 Now they were fugitives, armed, radicalized and headed directly towards the worst decision of their lives. After leaving Florida without being detected, Linda and George made their first stop in Georgia, where They met briefly with some acquaintances before continuing to Mobile, Alabama. Court records confirm that They had no fixed address.

 They lived inside the red mustang, moving constantly and without staying in nowhere long enough to be found. But they weren’t trying to go unnoticed. They continued to act completely according to their beliefs sovereign citizens. They did not recognize the authority of Alabama, did not recognize the authority of any state.

 In its form to think, no local government, state or federal had any authority about them. The weapons inside that car were not there for coincidence Three pistols, two rifles semi-automatic, an M14 rifle. Court records they make it clear that it was an arsenal deliberately and carefully selected. They were not a couple scared running away.

 They were a unit armed ideological that already existed demonstrated their willingness to use the violence. During all that time, the Linda’s 9-year-old son was with them. The testimonies of the witnesses and court records confirmed after the child showed visible signs of distress in more than an occasion during the time They went traveling.

 By October 1993 They had been fugitives for months, without income, without permanent shelter and with the certainty repeatedly expressed and officially recorded that never would obey any agent of the law enforcement under no circumstances circumstance. They weren’t planning a murder, but They had already made the decision would lead to one.

 We are approximately half of this history and is about to become much worse before even getting close to justice. If you haven’t done so yet, Subscribe now so you don’t miss out none of the episodes that Let’s publish. Now, October 4, 1993, a Walmart parking lot in Opelica, Alabama. On October 4, 1993 It started like any other day I work for Sergeant Roger Motley.

He arrived at the police department Opelica to start her turn. Before leave, a younger officer mentioned that I needed a bulletproof vest. Roger He took off his and handed it to her without hesitate, without thinking twice. That Tomorrow he left the police station with nothing to protect his chest.

 Your assignment It was simple, drive to the Walmart on the outskirts of Opélica and pick up supplies for the department. one such a routine task that it hardly deserved a second thought. Meanwhile, across town, Linda and George parked the red Mustang in that same Walmart parking lot. No They were there to shop. They needed to use the public telephone located outside the entrance of the store.

 After weeks of moving from one place to another, it was supposed to be a 5 minute stop only. george stayed in the car with the son 9 year old Linda. Linda walked up the pay phone and picked up the headset. That’s when everything changed. A woman in the parking lot He noticed the boy sitting in the Mustang. something It caught his attention.

 Later, declared that he saw him move his lips to say two words through glass. Help me. He didn’t ignore it. He waited until he saw a police officer enter the parking lot and immediately He motioned for him to come closer. that Officer was Sergeant Roger Motley. Roger walked straight towards him. Mustang, calmly introduced himself and He asked George for his driver’s license.

George refused. He told Roger no. recognized the authority of the State, which I didn’t need a license. began to recite the doctrine of the citizens sovereigns, the same beliefs about the ones he and Linda had built all their lives as fugitives. Roger remained calm. As a measure of Caution, he placed his hand on his gun of service. He didn’t draw it.

 george saw the movement of his hand, he took out a semi-automatic pistol and opened fire. Roger turned and ran towards his patrol car, responding with shots and hitting George. He grabbed his radio and transmitted. Officer in trouble. Officer Corner was shot next to parking. The parking lot erupted into chaos. The witnesses screamed.

Some people rushed behind the automobiles. Others ran from I return to the store. on the phone public, Linda heard the shots, She reached into her bag and pulled out a pistol. Then he ran, not to get away of the shots, but directly towards them. Court records and witness testimonies confirm the what happened later.

 When approaching the Mustang, Linda crouched down, raised her gun and shot Roger, who he was crouched behind his patrol car with all his attention on George. Roger turned towards her. She returned to shoot. The bullet hit him squarely in the chest Without his bulletproof vest I had no protection, nothing would stop the bullet, nothing that could save his life. Roger Lamar Mley Jr.

He fell collapsed in that parking lot. He was rushed to Lista Alabama Medical Center. The doctors They did everything possible to save him. They couldn’t. He was 38 years old. I had a wife called Guanita. I had four children waiting for him at home. that morning he had given away his vest because someone I needed it more.

 And the woman who fired that last shot had a very specific explanation for justify what he did. An explanation that in time a jury would end rejecting word for word. Pretty and George didn’t stop, didn’t They pushed aside, they did not surrender. In the moment when Roger fell, they returned to got into the red Mustang and accelerated background.

 The police chase began a few minutes later. The agents They reported by radio that the vehicle It was traveling at speeds of between 80 and 90 miles per hour through Opélica, but the The chase did not last long. They were captured. The agents detained them and They took both into custody. george I was hurt. Response shots of Roger had hit the mark.

 The Linda’s 9-year-old son was taken from the vehicle and immediately placed under protective custody. Neither Linda nor George uttered a single word of remorse. Neither of them He cooperated with the agents. They were formally prosecuted and arrested. At another side of Opélica, Juanita Motley received the phone call for that no wife of a people is really prepared.

 Her husband had left that afternoon to make an order routine. I wasn’t going back home. Four children would grow up without their father. Roger’s mother Ann Modley and her sister Betty Ann Fus received that same day the same devastating news. They would carry that pain for next 12 years until the night when They finally saw how justice closed that chapter forever.

 This was not a mystery The shooting occurred in full daylight in a parking lot public in front of several civilian witnesses who saw how everything happened to just a few meters away. The researchers They didn’t have to look for suspects. Both Linda and George were already under custody before the sun set on October 4, 1993.

The real challenge was different and much more unusual. Prosecutors had to build a case that could be sustained in the court against two accused who did not They believed that the court had no right to exist. Linda and George don’t They were going to cooperate with the lawyers defenders, they were not going to negotiate a plea agreement, they were going to enter in that courtroom and question your own authority to judge them.

 That made the preparation fundamental. The researchers They interviewed all the witnesses of the parking. His stories were consistent and forceful. george shot first. Linda headed deliberately towards Roger while he He was busy behind his patrol car. He raised his gun and fired. It was confirmed that the firearm recovered from Linda had been shot.

 However, one forensic question remained unanswered who had really been the bullet that caused the fatal injury. Court records confirm that that determination could not be made with certainty. In the end it wouldn’t be necessary. The case against Linda and George is not built on a single test, built on a pattern and that pattern It was impossible to ignore.

 The prosecutors They made one thing absolutely clear. from the beginning. These were not two peaceful people that they had simply lost the control under pressure. The records judicial proceedings showed that they had already been accused of aggravated assault in Florida for the violent attack against Carl Block, tying up a 79-year-old man to a chair and stab him.

 They declared I will not contend, they did not appear at the sentencing hearing and They fled the state as fugitives wanted. They were already fleeing justice before setting foot in that Walmart parking lot. The arsenal recovered from the Mustang reinforced everything. Three pistols, two rifles semi-automatic, an M14 rifle.

Court records confirmed that This was not a couple’s weaponry. who simply lived on the margins of society. It was a deliberate preparation for a violent confrontation. The sworn statements of all witnesses present at that parking lot coincided in the facts key. George shot first. Linda advanced. They both fired their weapons.

against Sergeant Roger Motley. The testimony of the woman who beckoned to Roger to come closer turned out to be especially forceful. had been close enough to see lips of the child moving through the glass and close enough to see die Roger. During the trial, Linda Lion Block testified in his own defense and What did he say inside that courtroom? It was something that no one present I would never forget.

 When Linda and George They walked into that Alabama courthouse, no They came to defend themselves, they came to reject the entire judicial process. Since On the first day, both made clear their position, they rejected the lawyers appointed to represent them, told the court, clearly and without hesitation that they did not recognize his authority to judge them.

 Your argument It was extraordinary. They stated that Alabama had never been readmitted legally in the Union after the civil war. Therefore, according to your opinion, the State itself operated outside of the limits of the Constitution and not had legal jurisdiction over them. They also maintained that the shooting had been in self-defense.

 Roger had put his hand on his service weapon during the confrontation. For Linda and George, that gesture was an act of aggression against sovereign individuals who They had every right to protect themselves. Linda put it clearly. The only thing What I did was protect my husband. The jury heard one version completely different.

 Witness after witness lent swore and told the same story. George shot first without any provocation. Roger stepped back, responded with shots and called for reinforcements. Linda ran to the place, adopted deliberately a firing position and shot Roger, while he my back was still partially turned towards her. The records courts confirm that although the ballistic tests could not determine with certainty which of the bullets caused Roger’s death, the law of Alabama did not require that determination.

Both Linda and George had actively participated in the murder of a police officer. According to the law of Alabama, that made them both equally responsible for murder capital. The jury found them guilty of both positions. Both were convicted to death. Both filed appeals arguing the same claims about the jurisdiction that the court already had rejected.

 Those appeals do not They prospered. On December 21, 1994, Linda Sherry Lionblock was transferred to Julia Tutweiler Women’s Prison in Hetumka, Alabama. 7 years were waiting for him on death row. Not a single one of those years he changed his way of thinking about nothing. Linda Lion Block spent 7 years on death row in Julia Tutweiler prison for women in Hetumka, Alabama.

 He did not present a single single appeal. His reason was coherent with everything I had believed during years. The courts had no authority about her. File an appeal would have meant undergoing a system that considered completely illegitimate He refused to give her that satisfaction. He gave interviews from her cell, she remained serene and lucid.

He never retracted the ideology that had led to that prison since beginning. In your own words during those years he said, “No, I don’t deserve die and I will fight kicking and screaming until you reach the chair electrical. He didn’t do it. In 2002, Alabama passed a new law that made the lethal injection in the main method of execution with validity from the July 1, 2002.

 According to the new law, those sentenced to death could choose between lethal injection and electrocution. The execution of the INDA was scheduled for May 10, 2002, just a few weeks before That law will come into force. It was not given no option. Those who knew her said that That probably wouldn’t have changed. nothing.

 Choose an execution method would have meant interacting with the same system that had been in place for a decade refusing to acknowledge. On May 9, 2002, Linda spent her last hours in silence. He refused a last meal special. He refused to write a final statement. He spent several hours with three close friends and then met with his spiritual advisor, Sally Mich, the only witness he requested within the execution chamber.

 was transferred to Holman Correctional Center in Atmore, Alabama. He wore a white uniform prison simple. They had shaved him the head to allow the electrodes made contact suitable. She was fastened to the chair Alabama Electrical. known as Yellow Mama, a chair that was in use since 1927 and that he had already carried out 177 previous executions.

 The order of execution was read aloud. You They asked if I had any last words. He responded, “No.” At 12:1 The early morning of May 10, 2002 applied the current 2.50 V for 20 seconds. followed by 250 V for 100 seconds. The witnesses observed how his body became rigid. His fists They closed with force. Steam rose from the contact points of the electrodes.

 Later, the commissioner of the department of corrections Alabama, Michael Haley, described what he observed. His look was a look completely empty, a look without emotion. At 12:10 in the morning, Linda Cherry Lion Block was declared dead He was 54 years old. It was the first woman executed in Alabama in 45 years and the last person in the United States executed in the electric chair without An alternative method was offered.

Yellow Mama was retired shortly after. He had claimed his last life. 3 years Then, on August 4, 2005, George Sibr was executed by injection lethal in the same penitentiary center. In the days before his death, submitted a handwritten petition to the court, claiming that it had been Linda and not him, who fired the shot that killed to Sergeant Motley.

 Legally, that is not absolutely nothing changed. Your final statement was brief. All the Those who are doing this to me are guilty of murder. Then he added, “To me sister and my niece I love express my love and my gratitude and my gratitude to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” George Sibley Jr. was 62 years old. On August 4, 2005, Juanita Motley sat behind the glass in the center Holman Correctional Facility and saw George Sibor give his last breath. I wasn’t alone.

 A At his side were Roger’s son, his two stepchildren, his mother Annley and his sister Betty Ann Fous, same family who had carried that pain for 12 long years. When it was all over, Juanita spoke simply and calm. I’m ready to close this one chapter of my life and move on. I think justice was done. An Motley He said even less, but his words They said everything.

 Thank the good Lord for have given me a son like mine and not Like George Sibley. Roger Mley went to Walmart that afternoon for pickup supplies for your department. If stopped to help a child who I had never known, because that’s how he was each and every day, without recognition, without protection. I was 38 years. He must have returned home for dinner.

Roger Motley deserved better than him that gave him that parking. tell me in the comments what moment of this story was the one that impacted you the most. And yes It’s the first time you’re here, Subscribe because every week we bring you the full story, the real story from start to finish. See you in the next