May 8—The defense team for Corey Maples, convicted of capital murder for fatally shooting his two friends in Decatur in 1995, made its opening argument in the resentencing trial Tuesday afternoon after the prosecution called its last witness.

“How has Stacy’s death impacted you and your family?” Alabama Assistant Attorney General Polly Kenny asked the father of victim Stacy Terry.

“Terrible,” he replied, in tears. “Stacy was my fishing buddy. My baby.”

Maples was friends with Stacy Terry and Barry Robinson before he shot them as the pair sat in Terry’s Chevrolet Camaro outside Maples’ residence on the night of July 7, 1995. The three had been playing pool together in Decatur, and there were apparently no problems between them preceding the attack, according to both the prosecution and the defense.

Afterward, Maples took Terry’s wallet and Camaro and was later apprehended in Nashville. Because of the aggravating factor of first-degree robbery, Maples was charged with capital murder and convicted in 1997. At 21 years old, he was sentenced to death at the 10-2 recommendation of a jury.

After fighting for the right to appeal his punishment all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012, a federal court later threw out Maples’ death sentence in 2022 due to ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase. Now, a Morgan County jury will ostensibly decide whether Maples will remain in prison for life without parole or be sentenced to death; however, Circuit Judge Charles Elliott has decided that he can override the jury’s recommended punishment, if he so chooses — a judicial practice that was banned by the state Legislature in 2017 but legal during Maples’ original sentencing.

“It’s not a pretty picture, it’s not a pretty story, but it is one that needs to be told,” defense attorney Christy Miller said to the jury in her opening argument. “These murders were without provocation and there was no reason, and it was horrible. Y’all are not here to determine his guilt.”

Miller told the jury that they had two choices for Maples: life without parole or death.

“I can only assume that determining whether or not someone lives or dies is not something you’ve had to do,” she said. “When you deliberate, you’ll be left in a wide, gray area. The law says death is never required. If you impose it, it will be because you want to, not because you have to.”

Miller went on to explain the purpose of mitigating evidence and said that a juror’s “heart and moral compass” can guide them in determining whether mitigation should outweigh the aggravating factor. She said jurors are required by law to know and have an understanding of Maples’ life.

Miller then painted a picture of a boy “born behind the 8-ball” to a family with a history of addiction, mental illness and alcoholism. Maples’ mother gave birth at a young age and wasn’t yet ready to be a “mama,” according to Miller. His mother sent him to live with his father when he was 3 years old.

“He grew up believing his mama didn’t want him,” Miller said. The experience “left a mama-shaped hole in his heart.”

Maples’ life with his father wasn’t much of an improvement, according to Miller. His father spent money on alcohol at the expense of food and utility bills, she said. He frequently told Maples that he “wouldn’t amount to anything,” according to Miller.

At 16 years old, Maples went to live with his mother for a short while before she asked him to leave following a confrontation, Miller said. Maples went back to live with his father.

“The mama-shaped hole got wider and deeper,” she said. “It was the beginning of a downward spiral.”

Maples dropped out of high school and fell in with the wrong crowd, according to Miller. He began using drugs: first marijuana, then LSD, cocaine, crack cocaine and meth. He couldn’t hold down a job. His father kicked him out of the house. He tried to enlist in the Army, according to Miller, but was turned away after testing positive for marijuana.

“Experts will tell you that people with no self-worth do self-destructive things,” Miller said. Eventually, Maples was arrested for drugs, according to Miller, and became a confidential informant for police. After receiving credible threats, his father sent him to live with his uncle, a “traumatized, alcoholic” Vietnam veteran.

“He was living and getting drunk with the person who was supposed to get him straight,” Miller said. Eventually, Maples ended up back at his father’s home. “It was the last stop before this crime occurred.”

Since then, Maples has spent nearly 29 years in prison. Miller said during that time, despite harsh prison conditions, he had no violent offenses and is not a danger to anyone in prison.

“Nothing that anybody here will say will change that he’s a guilty murderer,” she said. “We ask you to see the 50-year-old man sitting at the counsel table. We ask you to see the son, the cousin, the human being.

“We’re not asking you to excuse him or forgive him, or even like him. We are here asking you to sentence Corey Maples to life without the possibility of parole.”

With Miller finished, the jury was escorted from the courtroom. The defense will call its first witness Wednesday morning.

Before the parties were dismissed, both agreed to cut a juror who had apparently fallen asleep in court Monday and again during Miller’s opening argument.

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.