Anthony George Battle was convicted of two murders committed seven years apart. In 1987 he murdered his wife, Minnie Foreman, on the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina, and he received a life sentence. In December 1994, while serving that sentence at a federal penitentiary in Georgia, he murdered D'Antonio Washington, a correctional officer. A federal jury in Atlanta convicted him in March 1997 and sentenced him to death. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence in 1999 and affirmed the denial of post-conviction relief in 2005. On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The case turned in court on one question, the state of Battle's mind. He gave notice that he would rely on an insanity defense, the experts disagreed about his diagnosis, and the courts found him competent to stand trial.
Battle's wife was Minnie Foreman. In 1987 he murdered her at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a Marine Corps base. Because the offense occurred on a federal military installation, it was prosecuted in federal court rather than in a state court.
He was convicted of first-degree felony murder, aggravated sexual abuse and second-degree murder, and received a life sentence. A later federal court described it as a paroleable life sentence. While he awaited trial in 1987 he was evaluated at a federal medical center in North Carolina by Dr. Sally C. Johnson, who diagnosed a personality disorder with paranoid and schizotypal features and found no psychosis. That evaluation was revisited when his competence was contested a decade later.
In 1993 Battle was transferred to a federal penitentiary in Georgia.
D'Antonio Andrew Washington was a correctional officer there. He was 31 years old. He was the first African American officer killed in a federal prison and the second officer to die at that penitentiary. He died in December 1994. Investigators concluded that Battle was responsible, and he made statements to staff and to federal agents, some of which the trial court suppressed.
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia indicted Battle on November 21, 1995. He was arraigned on December 4, 1995, pleaded not guilty and gave notice of an insanity defense that month. In July 1996 the government gave notice that it would seek the death penalty.
The government asked for a psychiatric examination, and Dr. Johnson and Dr. Mark Hazelrigg of the same federal medical center examined him. Their report of March 21, 1996, found him competent. It stated that they did not find the existence of a psychosis, and it diagnosed a mixed personality disorder and malingering. Defense experts reached the opposite conclusion. Dr. Dave Davis and Dr. George Woods diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, and Dr. Woods concluded that Battle was not malingering. Dr. Stephen O'Hagan found test results suggestive of schizophrenia and possible frontal-lobe impairment, and concluded that Battle was delusional at the time of the offense. Dr. Hazelrigg testified that Battle was not and never had been a paranoid schizophrenic. The experts also disagreed over how to read the results of the personality testing and whether it pointed to brain impairment.
A magistrate judge, Richard H. Deane, held a competency hearing that ran about twelve days, and in October 1996 recommended a finding of competence. District Judge Orinda D. Evans reviewed the matter afresh and adopted the recommendation in an order of November 15, 1996. The Eleventh Circuit later described the result in its own words: the district court "judged Battle competent to stand trial."
The trial began in February 1997. The court ordered restraints because of three violent incidents after the offense and arranged the courtroom so that the jury would not see them. Battle testified and admitted the killing, and he described delusions and hallucinations in support of the insanity defense. On insanity the law placed the burden on him: he had to prove by clear and convincing evidence a severe mental disease or defect that left him unable to understand the nature, quality or wrongfulness of his acts. The government had to prove every element of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
On March 12, 1997, the jury returned a verdict of first-degree murder on a special verdict form. He was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1118, which covers the murder of a correctional officer by a federal inmate serving a life sentence. At the sentencing hearing three prison officers testified about the effect of Washington's death on the institution. The jury recommended death, and in 1997 the court sentenced Battle to death. He was the first Georgia man to receive a federal death sentence after Congress restored capital punishment for federal crimes in 1988.
Battle appealed. On April 28, 1999, the Eleventh Circuit (Chief Judge Hatchett and Judges Edmondson and Black) affirmed in an opinion by Judge Edmondson. The court held that the decisions on restraints and on Battle's presence in the courtroom were "careful and informed judgments permitted by the Constitution." It held that the government could amend its notice of intent to seek death before sentencing, that the testimony of the prison officers was permissible victim-impact evidence, and that it was a valid delegation of federal power to leave the procedure of a federal execution to state law. It found the remaining issues to lack serious merit.
In October 2001 Battle filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate the conviction and sentence. In an order of December 28, 2001, Judge Evans denied motions to disqualify her and to reassign the case, among others. The district court denied the motion itself in 2003, and Battle appealed again.
On August 10, 2005, the Eleventh Circuit (Chief Judge Edmondson and Judges Birch and Black) affirmed, in a per curiam opinion that replaced an earlier one. It held that the procedural competency claim was waived because Battle had not raised it on direct appeal, and that the substantive claim failed because he had not proved incompetency and the district court's findings were not clearly erroneous. The district court had found that he consented, at least tacitly, to the insanity defense, and the Eleventh Circuit held that finding not clearly erroneous. A challenge based on Ring v. Arizona failed because that decision was issued after his conviction became final and does not apply retroactively. The court lifted the stay of execution.
In July 2019, when the Justice Department announced that it would resume federal executions, Battle was not among the first five inmates it listed, though he could be scheduled later. No date was set for him.
On December 23, 2024, President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row. Battle was one of them, and his sentence was changed to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The White House fact sheet stated that the president "believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level," with an exception for terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. The conviction itself was not disturbed.
Two features of federal law shaped both cases. A killing on a military installation falls under federal criminal law, so Foreman's murder was tried in a federal court, not a state court. The penitentiary is a federal facility, and Congress made the murder of a federal correctional officer by an inmate serving a life sentence a capital offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1118.
Battle's mental state was the contested issue. The defense experts diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia; the government's experts diagnosed a personality disorder and malingering. The jury rejected the insanity defense, the district court found him competent, and the Eleventh Circuit upheld those findings in 1999 and 2005.
1987: Battle murders his wife, Minnie Foreman, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; convicted of first-degree felony murder, aggravated sexual abuse and second-degree murder; life sentence.
1993: Transferred to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
December 1994: Correctional officer D'Antonio Washington, 31, dies.
November 21, 1995: Indictment in the Northern District of Georgia.
December 4, 1995: Arraignment; plea of not guilty; notice of insanity defense.
March 21, 1996: Government examiners report that Battle is competent.
July 1996: Government gives notice that it will seek the death penalty.
November 15, 1996: District court adopts the magistrate judge's competency recommendation.
February 1997: Trial begins.
March 12, 1997: Verdict of first-degree murder; death sentence follows in 1997.
April 28, 1999: Eleventh Circuit affirms the conviction and sentence.
October 2001: Motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 filed.
August 10, 2005: Eleventh Circuit affirms the denial of relief.
July 2019: Not among the first five inmates listed by the Justice Department for execution.
December 23, 2024: Sentence commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.