Jack Harrison Trawick

Name and identifiers

Jack Harrison Trawick (male; W; gender M)

Status

Trawick was executed by lethal injection in Alabama on June 11, 2009.

The offence

Jack Harrison Trawick abducted Stephanie Gach from the parking lot of her apartment complex in Birmingham on October 9, 1992, after following her home from a local shopping mall. Trawick took Stephanie Gach to an isolated area, where he beat her with a hammer, strangled her, stabbed her through the heart, and tossed her body off an embankment. Her body was found on October 10, 1992.

In 1995, a jury also found Trawick guilty of killing 27-year-old Aileen Pruitt and sentenced him to life in prison.

Investigation

On October 26, 1996, while investigating reports of several attempted abductions of women, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department interviewed Trawick as a suspect in relation to those reports. During a second interview, the police asked Trawick whether he had had any involvement with the murder of Stephanie Gach. In a third interview conducted on October 29, 1996, Trawick indicated that he knew something about the murder. In a fourth interview conducted on the same day, Trawick confessed to the crime and was then arrested for it.

Arrest and charges

The grand jury indicted Trawick for the capital offense of murder committed during a first-degree kidnapping.

After arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Trial

After trial, the jury found Trawick guilty of capital murder.

The jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of 10-2. The trial court sentenced him to death in accordance with the recommendation.

In 1995, a jury also found him guilty of killing 27-year-old Aileen Pruitt and sentenced him to life in prison.

Sentencing

The trial court sentenced Trawick to death.

The jury had recommended death by a vote of 10-2.

Appeals

Direct appeal (state)

Trawick appealed his capital murder conviction and death sentence.

Ex Parte Trawick, 698 So.2d 162 (Ala.Cr.App.1997) (Direct Appeal).

The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence. The decision addressed challenges related to jury selection and instructions, including that Trawick failed to show state peremptory challenges discriminated against female jurors, failed to show two jurors should have been struck from the venire for cause, and that no plain error arose from the exclusion of a juror who indicated opposition to the death penalty would outweigh the obligation to consider recommending it. The decision also stated that the jury was correctly instructed regarding reasonable doubt, burden of proof, weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, weighing voluntariness of confession, and definitions relevant to the mental disease or defect defense. The Court also stated the confession was not taken in violation of the right to counsel or in response to improper promises made by police, Trawick was not entitled to instruction on lesser included offense of noncapital intentional murder, and the jury was not required to specify aggravating circumstances that it apparently found to exist.

Habeas appeal (federal)

Trawick v. Allen, 520 F.3d 1264 (11th Cir. 2008) (Habeas).

The United States Court of Appeals held that the state court's determination that Trawick had not established a prima facie case of gender-based discrimination during jury selection was not contrary to federal law, and it affirmed the denial of habeas relief.

Outcome

Final statement

Trawick said: "I wish to apologize to the people who I have hurt and I ask for their forgiveness. I don't deserve it, but I do ask for it."

Other details

Trawick was on death row at Holman Correctional Facility from 1994 until his execution.

Trawick was twice-convicted murderer and relatives of the two murder victims watched his execution.

Stephanie Gach was described as 21, of Irondale, and a community college student. Aileen Pruitt was described as 26 in one account and 27 in other accounts. Heather watched the execution.

Donna Middlebrooks watched the execution. Donna Middlebrooks was described as sister of Aileen Pruitt.

Trawick’s witnesses were two of his cousins, Rebecca and Norman Sudduth; James Slack, a UAB faculty member who had been a spiritual adviser to Trawick; Randy Susskind, an attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative; Ben Sherrod of the Kairos prison ministry; and Tod Bohannon, the operator of a web site that auctions memorabilia from notorious criminals.

Stephanie Gach’s mother, Mary Kate, planned to give a statement after Trawick's execution but chose not to come to Atmore after hearing that Trawick was planning to give his possessions to Bohannon.

Prison officials said Trawick had decided to give Bohannon a Bible, a dictionary, a wallet, a television, and assorted photos and cosmetics. He also planned to give pictures and a Bible to a cousin, Mary Anne Pearson.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said authorities were going to examine all of the items before releasing them.

Trawick was in a good mood throughout the day, receiving visitors and eating a last meal of fried chicken, French fries, onion soup and a roll.

A state law allowed up to two of Pruitt's family members to witness Trawick's execution because only Heather Gach was on hand for the Gach family. Joshua Pruitt, Pruitt’s son, had been planning to come and witness Trawick's death but chose not to.

Eliot Kew, a British filmmaker who planned to make a movie about people who collected items from serial killers, was in the Atmore area. Prison officials said he was not allowed to be near the execution site or around relatives of Trawick's victims while they were on state property.

A letter from Jack Trawick to Brittney Spears was quoted extensively. It included: "My Dear Britney Spears, Seldom does a talent like yours come along. Your voice could make the angels cry and the devil become pure and sweet. People like Charles Manson would melt his ice-cold heart if he would just let your music flow over him. You truly are a role model and an idol to most adolescent females. You not only touch their hearts but you give them a reason to celebrate. However, I am a sexually motivated serial killer and if it were up to me – I would strip you nude, tie you to a bed and taste all of your femininity. Once I had ripped your girl thingy almost out of its hiding place, and while you were still conscious and aware of your surroundings, I would hack your grape sized nipples and your finger sized clit from your then – non – virgin body and make you eat them. Next I would slowly and methodically strangle you – just to the point of unconsciousness – let you revive and start the whole process again. Eventually you would become a blonde, brain dead zombie. You would beg for death but I would deny you of that relief. Eventually your once sensual body would shake in your final death spasms. I would – with the artistry of a skilled surgeon – disembowel, dismember and behead your now useless body. I would scatter your individual body parts in the four corners of the earth. You would leave this earth totally unceremoniously and without any earthly markers. One day you are Britney Spears rock and roll singer – the next day you would be little more than road kill. You were born a thingy sucking, girl thingy licking, cum drunk common gutter very friendly person. You live as a thingy sucking, girl thingy licking, cum drunk common gutter very friendly person – and you will die a thingy sucking, girl thingy licking, cum drunk gutter very friendly person. You are on T.V. as I write this. And as I watch, I can think of no greater joy than to ravish and mutilate your selective surgery, silicon, body. You say that you are a virgin. Most likely you have been hopping on thingys since you were wearing juvenile diapers. Regardless of what you may think – sucking thingy and taking a hard wanger in your butt is sexual. Well – good luck in your career. If the singing gig runs a bit stale – you can always be a porn queen. Just think – the next time you go anywhere – I could be there waiting on you. Before you get carried away about all your security and body guards and blah blah blah – no security is absolute. Looking forward To our first meeting, JP. S. Write ASAP. Please send some lingerie photos."

In a 1994 and 1995 context, it was stated that Trawick was sentenced to death for killing Stephanie Gach and was convicted of killing Aileen Pruitt in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison.

It was also stated that Trawick had claimed to have committed another Birmingham area murder and two in the Pacific northwest and that no legal efforts were made to stop his execution.

Timeline

• October 9, 1992 — Trawick abducted Stephanie Gach from the parking lot of her apartment complex in Birmingham after following her home from a local shopping mall.
• October 10, 1992 — Stephanie Gach’s body was found.
• October 26, 1996 — Jefferson County Sheriff's Department interviewed Trawick as a suspect during an investigation of attempted abductions.
• October 29, 1996 — Trawick confessed to Stephanie Gach’s murder and was arrested for it.
• June 11, 2009 — Trawick was executed by lethal injection in Alabama.