Bio 

Earnest Ulysses Morrison was born in 1960. The court record described Morrison’s childhood as chaotic and destructive. He was reported to have experienced abuse, abandonment, and rejection during his early years. By age 11, he had already been declared unruly and incorrigible by authorities in Ohio. The court record also stated that he had been in serious trouble from about age six, including incidents involving bicycle theft, breaking and entering, and grand larceny with a firearm.

By his teenage years, Morrison had developed a long juvenile and criminal record. He was convicted of felony auto theft in Jefferson County, Georgia, at age 17. He was also convicted of criminal abduction involving a seven-year-old girl in Ohio when he was 19. The court record further stated that he had abused drugs heavily from his early teenage years.

Before the Georgia murder, Morrison committed a similar violent crime in South Carolina. According to the Georgia Supreme Court, he stayed with a couple in South Carolina after being allowed into their home. When the husband told him he would have to work or leave, Morrison waited until the husband went to work. He then attacked the wife, bound her with duct tape, raped her, stole property, and fled in her car. The victim survived that attack.

Morrison later escaped from the Aiken County jail in South Carolina, where he was being held while awaiting trial for rape and robbery. After the escape, he traveled to Georgia and went to the home of a man who had once been married to Morrison’s aunt. That man allowed him to stay in the home for a few days. This temporary arrangement ended when the man told Morrison he needed to get a job or leave.

Murder Story

On January 9, 1987, Earnest Ulysses Morrison attacked Edna Mary Griffin inside her home in Augusta, Georgia. Griffin was the wife of Morrison’s uncle by marriage. Morrison had been staying with the couple for a few days after arriving in Georgia. According to the Georgia Supreme Court, the couple allowed him to stay temporarily, but the husband eventually told Morrison that he would have to find work or leave.

On the day Morrison was supposed to leave, he waited until Griffin’s husband went to work. Once they were alone in the home, Morrison attacked Griffin. According to Morrison’s own account, he intended to tie her with duct tape and rape her, but she resisted strongly. During the attack, he raped and killed her. Later court records state that he choked her to death.

After the killing, Morrison stole Griffin’s car and several valuables from the home. The stolen property included personal items and other valuables. He fled Georgia and traveled to Tennessee, where he was later arrested. The case was prosecuted in Richmond County, Georgia.

The Georgia case had strong similarities to Morrison’s earlier South Carolina crime. In both cases, he stayed with a couple, waited until the man left, attacked the woman, used restraints, committed rape, and stole property. In the South Carolina case, the victim survived. In the Georgia case, Edna Mary Griffin died.

Morrison was indicted on May 12, 1987. On October 30, 1987, he pleaded guilty to murder, rape, armed robbery, theft by taking, and escape. He was represented by two attorneys at the time of the plea. The court accepted the plea after a hearing.

Before sentencing, Morrison wrote a letter to the judge. In the letter, he admitted his guilt and said he had become a Christian. He also said he feared that, if given the chance, he would escape and kill again. For that reason, he asked the court to sentence him to death.

The sentencing hearing was unusual because Morrison did not want his lawyers to present mitigating evidence on his behalf. One of his attorneys even argued in favor of a death sentence because Morrison had requested it. However, the trial judge still reviewed Morrison’s background, including psychiatric evaluations, his parole file, and other information about his childhood and prior conduct.

During sentencing, the court found several aggravating circumstances. The judge found that the murder was committed during the rape of Griffin, during the armed robbery of Griffin, and while Morrison was an escapee from the Aiken County jail in South Carolina. The court also considered mitigating evidence, including Morrison’s childhood background and his cooperation in a separate Tennessee murder case while awaiting return to Georgia.

On November 2, 1987, the trial court sentenced Morrison to death for the murder of Edna Mary Griffin. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence on November 10, 1988.

Morrison later challenged his death sentence through post-conviction proceedings. One major issue was whether he had intellectual disability, then legally called “mental retardation” in older court records. Georgia law bars the execution of people who meet that standard. In 1999, a jury found that Morrison had not proven he met the legal definition. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in 2003.

Georgia death-row records show that Morrison remained listed under a death sentence in 2012, with GDC number 400256, birth month July 1960, sentence date November 1987, and Richmond County as the county of conviction.

However, Georgia death-row records for 2013 list Earnest Morrison among inmates whose sentence or conviction was overturned that year. He does not appear on Georgia’s March 31, 2026 death-row roster, which lists 33 current death-sentence cases.