Alvin Howard Neelley Jr. served a life sentence in Georgia for one murder and died in prison in October 2005. Two people died in the events that tied his name to the case, in separate incidents in two states in the autumn of 1982: a 13-year-old girl, Lisa Ann Millican, on September 28 in Alabama, and a 22-year-old woman, Janice Kay Chatman, in Georgia in October. His wife, Judith Ann Neelley, was convicted of the girl's murder in Alabama and sentenced to death. Alvin Neelley was convicted of the Georgia murder on his own guilty plea. He was not prosecuted in Alabama.
He was from Georgia, and he was 52 when he died in 2005. One earlier episode is on record from his wife's case: he was an accomplice in a robbery committed by Judith Neelley when she was 16, and he was sentenced to a term in the Georgia State Penitentiary. She left the Georgia Youth Development Center in December 1981, and he was released from the penitentiary several months after that.
Lisa Ann Millican was 13. The events concerning her began on September 25, 1982, and she was killed on September 28, 1982, in Alabama; the jury that tried the case sat in DeKalb County. The Alabama court wrote of Alvin Neelley's "involvement in Miss Millican's murder", and the governor's office has since described him as having taken part in the 1982 events that led to her death.
Janice Kay Chatman, 22, lived in Rome, Georgia. The Georgia events involving her took place on October 3, 1982. Alvin Neelley served a life sentence in Georgia for her death. Her fiance survived; Alabama's governor's office has described the attempted murder of her fiance as one of the crimes in which Judith Neelley was implicated.
Alvin Neelley was arrested in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on October 13, 1982, on a bad-check charge, a few days after his wife had been arrested there on forgery-related charges. While the two were held on those charges, further charges arising from the deaths of Lisa Millican and Janice Chatman, and from the attempted murder of her fiance, were placed against them. Judith Neelley was indicted in Alabama on October 27, 1982, and arraigned there on December 17, 1982.
Alvin Neelley pleaded guilty in Georgia to murder and aggravated assault, to avoid the death penalty according to the Mountain Valley News, and received a life sentence for Janice Chatman's murder. He was held at Bostick State Prison, in central Georgia, from 1983 until his death. The county court in which the plea was entered and the plea date are not on record.
Alvin Neelley was not tried in Alabama over the death of Lisa Ann Millican. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals addressed the point in its opinion of March 12, 1985, when Judith Neelley argued that her death sentence was out of proportion. The court wrote that, although it was a factor to consider, "the fact that Alvin Neelley has not been prosecuted for his involvement in Miss Millican's murder" did not make her sentence disproportionate. He was never tried for the girl's death. A dismissed charge or a plea agreement concerning Alabama is not on record, and neither is the reason he was not prosecuted there.
Judith Ann Neelley was indicted in DeKalb County, Alabama, for "the capital offense of murder during a kidnapping" under Alabama Code section 13A-5-40(a)(1). The jury returned its verdict on March 22, 1983, finding her guilty of the capital offense charged. It recommended life imprisonment without parole by a vote of 10 to 2, and the trial judge rejected that recommendation and sentenced her to death. The judge found that she had been substantially influenced by her husband but that his influence did not amount to extreme duress or substantial domination. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed on March 12, 1985, and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed on June 27, 1986. The United States Supreme Court denied review in 1987 and again in 1989 after later post-conviction proceedings, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of her federal petition on April 9, 1998. In 1999 Alabama Governor Fob James commuted her sentence to life imprisonment, which made her eligible for parole. The Alabama parole board denied her release in May 2023.
Neelley served his Georgia sentence from 1983 until his death. At one point his prison job assignment was chaplain's aide. He died on a Friday in October 2005, at the age of 52, while in the custody of the Georgia corrections system. The state corrections department gave no details of the cause.
One conviction is on record: Alvin Neelley's guilty plea in Georgia to the murder of Janice Kay Chatman, with a life sentence. The death of Lisa Ann Millican is attributed to him only as "involvement," in the Alabama court's word. The courts found Judith Ann Neelley guilty of that murder. No court found him guilty of it, and he was not prosecuted for it. The court and date of the Georgia plea are not on record.
About 1953: Alvin Howard Neelley Jr. is born in Georgia.
Before 1982: sentenced to a term in the Georgia State Penitentiary as an accomplice in a robbery; released several months after December 1981.
September 25 to 28, 1982: the events in Alabama that end in the death of Lisa Ann Millican, 13, on September 28.
October 1982 (October 3, per the Alabama court): the events in Georgia in which Janice Kay Chatman, 22, dies and her fiance is the target of an attempted murder.
October 13, 1982: arrested in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on a bad-check charge; further charges follow.
October 27, 1982: Judith Neelley is indicted in Alabama.
March 22, 1983: Alabama jury finds Judith Neelley guilty of the capital offense; she is sentenced to death.
1983: Alvin Neelley pleads guilty in Georgia to murder and aggravated assault and receives a life sentence.
March 12, 1985: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirms Judith Neelley's conviction and notes that Alvin Neelley has not been prosecuted in Alabama.
1999: Governor Fob James commutes Judith Neelley's death sentence to life.
October 2005: Alvin Neelley dies in Georgia state custody, aged 52.