No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row

Content Warning: This section contains references to violence and racism.

In the field of police forensics, ballistics concerns the analysis of bullets and bullet impacts. When a gun is fired, it produces marks on the bullet that are as unique as fingerprints; for this reason, ballistics evidence can be some of the most crucial and compelling used in an investigation. In Nanon’s trial, the state’s ballistics expert admitted that he had not bothered to test-fire the only gun police had recovered from the crime, which had been used by Nanon’s accomplice. Only years after Nanon’s conviction was a ballistics test finally performed, proving that the bullet taken from the victim’s head had indeed been fired by that gun rather than by Nanon’s.

Capital murder generally refers to first-degree murder committed with certain aggravating circumstances; examples include murder during the commission of another felony, the murder of a witness or of a police officer who was on duty, or murder in which the victim was tortured or raped. Typically, those convicted of felony murder are sentenced either to death or to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Roy, Nanon, and Napoleon were charged with capital murder because they committed their acts in conjunction with a felony (robbery or drug-dealing), and Mark, because his victim was a state witness.