Execution date set for July 2022; appeal must be filed within 30 days
Now convicted of double murder and given the penalty of death, Ricky Allen “Juvie” Dubose seems to have become the youngest person currently on death row in Georgia. Dubose was awarded the capital punishment Thursday, June 16, in Putnam County Superior Court.
Dubose shot and killed GDOC officers Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Chris Monica while traveling on a GDOC transport bus through Putnam County on June 13, 2017.
The bus was taking approximately 30 prisoners from the state prisons in Baldwin and Hancock counties to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
While riding along State Route 16, Dubose and another inmate, Donnie Russell Rowe, unhandcuffed themselves, went through the cage door that separates the inmates from the guards, shot to death the two officers with one of the officers’ handgun, escaped the bus, hijacked a car and led authorities on a three-day, interstate manhunt.
Rowe was tried separately in September, found guilty of all the same charges, but sentenced to life in prison. He was already serving a life sentence at the time.
Dubose’s trial began June 1 in Putnam County Superior Court, with Judge Alison T. Burleson presiding and a panel of jurors from Glynn County to ensure no biasness would influence the outcome. The prosecution team consisted of District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III, Chief Assistant D.A. Allison Mauldin, A.D.A. Blayne May and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
Dubose was defended by Capital Defense attorneys Amber Pittman and Nathanial Studelska, as well as attorneys Jerry Word and Shayla Galloway.
The defense team never debated their client’s guilt in the murders but provided testimony and evidence to show that Dubose is mentally ill and intellectually disabled, therefore ineligible for the death penalty. The prosecution team presented testimony and evidence to show Dubose was thorough and skillful each step of the way.
During the trial, the defense team initially acknowledged that Dubose is a member of the GhostFace Gangsters, a violent, drug-trafficking gang that reportedly formed in the Cobb County Jail approximately 20 years ago and spread to the streets and throughout the state in jails and prisons. During rebuttal testimony for the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors brought in officials from the prison system who testified Dubose has a hand in the trafficking of drugs, cell phones and other contraband inside the prison.
After jurors returned a guilty verdict Monday, June 13, against Dubose on all six counts – two counts of malice murder, two counts felony murder, one count escape and one count hijacking a motor vehicle – the penalty phase of the trial continued for the next three days.
The jurors deliberated for nearly three hours before returning a unanimous verdict of death.
Before their decision was announced, Judge Burleson met with attorneys and then told the spectators, family and friends in the gallery that there would be no outbursts from anyone when the verdict was read.
After the sentence of death was read aloud by Putnam County Clerk of Courts Trevor Addison, he showed the verdicts to the prosecution and defense attorneys, and Judge Burleson polled each of the jurors to confirm each one’s decision.
A sentence of death was given for each of the two murders, making two death sentences and also Judge Burleson handed down an additional 20 years for the hijacking of a motor vehicle.
Burleson also said she was required by law to set the date for the execution. “It has to be not less
“It has to be not less than 20 days … nor more than 60 days from the day of sentencing,” she explained. The judge set the date of
The judge set the date of the execution to take place during a period beginning at noon on Monday, July 18, and ending at noon on July 25, 2022.
She told Dubose he has a right to seek post-judgement relief from his crimes by either seeking a new trial in Putnam County or filing an appeal with a higher court. The appeal must be filed within 30 days.
The 29-year-old Dubose now joins approximately 38 others awaiting lethal injection in the state prison in Jackson. At the time of his sentencing, the youngest person on death row was 39 years old, according to an annual roster published March 31 by the Georgia Department of Corrections.