Bio

Carzell Moore was born in 1952 and lived in Cochran, Georgia. Before the crime, he worked for a local lumber company. Moore knew Roosevelt Green Jr., who later became his co-defendant. The two had met while in an Alabama prison in 1975. After Green escaped from prison, he came to Cochran using the name Jerome Miller. Moore later said that Green came looking for him and that he lent Green some clothing and shoes before the crime.

Murder Story

On December 12, 1976, 18-year-old Teresa Carol Allen reported to work at the Majik Market convenience store in Cochran, Georgia. She was a part-time store clerk and an honors college student. By shortly before 7:00 p.m., the store was found empty. The cash register and safe were open, $466 was missing, and Allen’s Pontiac Grand Prix was gone.

Teresa Allen’s body was found on December 14, 1976, in a wooded area off a dirt road near Highway 41 in Monroe County, Georgia. Investigators found cartridge hulls, bullet fragments, footprints, tire tracks, and a nylon stocking near the body. Medical testimony showed that Allen had been raped and shot with a high-powered weapon. She died from blood loss caused by the gunshot wounds.

The prosecution argued that Moore and Roosevelt Green robbed the Majik Market, kidnapped Allen, stole her car, and assaulted her before she was killed. A key prosecution witness, Thomas Pasby, testified that Moore later admitted that he and Green had committed the robbery and abducted Allen. According to Pasby’s testimony, Green raped Allen first, then Moore raped her after the two men changed places in the car. Pasby also testified that Moore said Allen begged not to be killed before Moore shot her.

Green was later found in South Carolina with Allen’s car. Court records also stated that Green had a large amount of change and money and had traded a .30-06 rifle. Moore was arrested on January 10, 1977. A search of Moore’s home on January 15, 1977, led authorities to seize several items, including a pair of brown Hush Puppy shoes and a towel. Investigators also compared physical evidence, including footprints and tire tracks, to items connected to Moore and Allen’s car.

Moore denied committing the robbery, rape, and murder. He testified that Green had borrowed some of his clothing and shoes and that he was not involved in Allen’s death. He also denied making the statements attributed to him by Thomas Pasby. The jury rejected Moore’s defense. In 1977, he was convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to death. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentences in 1978.

Roosevelt Green was also convicted and sentenced to death. His case reached the United States Supreme Court in Green v. Georgia, which involved whether Green had been wrongly prevented from presenting testimony that Moore had admitted he alone shot Allen. The Supreme Court ruled in Green’s favor on that evidentiary issue, but Green was later executed in Georgia on January 9, 1985.

Moore’s death sentence continued through years of state and federal litigation. In a federal habeas case, he was eventually granted a new sentencing proceeding, although his convictions remained in place. Georgia again sought the death penalty during the resentencing process. However, on June 18, 2002, Moore pleaded guilty to rape and malice murder and accepted a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Moore later filed challenges to his 2002 sentence, including motions for an out-of-time appeal. The Georgia Supreme Court rejected those efforts in 2018 and again affirmed the denial of later relief in 2020. His conviction and life-without-parole sentence remained in effect.