Black Sentenced to Death for Shooting Spree That Killed Eight, Including White Cop

He blamed the devil for his actions.

I’m more inclined to blame his genetics.

WAVE3:

A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Thursday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of eight people. Four of the convictions were for murder, which carry a sentence of life in prison. Four other convictions were for capital murder — a killing committed along with another felony.

Capital murder is punishable by the death penalty, but jurors must agree unanimously to set that as the punishment. Without unanimous agreement, the judge would set sentences of life in prison.

The unanimous decisions for the death penalty were handed down after the same jurors who convicted Godbolt heard testimony from several people Wednesday and Thursday during the penalty phase of the trial, the Daily Leader reported.

Godbolt gave a rambling speech full of religious references in court Thursday, and at one point a spectator seated among the victims’ families yelled at him to shut up, the Enterprise-Journal reported.

Godbolt said he had prayed to be a better man, “but the devil came to kill and destroy. He wasn’t going to let that be.”