Bio

Jack Gordon Greene was born on March 13, 1955. In the late 1980s, Greene and his wife contacted Sidney and Edna Burnett after learning about their religious charity, Ministries Aflame. The Burnetts gave the couple housing, employment and financial help, including assistance with surgery Greene needed. The relationship later deteriorated after Greene’s wife left him and returned to North Carolina. Greene came to believe that Edna Burnett had interfered in his marriage and that the Burnetts had wrongly accused him of burning one of their buildings.

Greene’s mental health became a significant issue during later proceedings. His attorneys presented evidence of delusional beliefs, psychosis, self-injury and a history of trauma. Questions about whether he could rationally understand his execution led to litigation and contributed to the stay of his scheduled November 2017 execution. The Arkansas Supreme Court later ruled that the state’s procedure giving prison officials sole control over execution-competency determinations did not provide sufficient due process.

Murder Story

On July 16, 1991, Greene abducted his niece, Angela Dawn Blankenship, in North Carolina and forced her to travel with him for two days. On July 18, they arrived at the home of Greene’s brother, Tommy Greene. Blankenship witnessed Greene shoot his brother five times with a .25-caliber handgun. Greene then took Tommy’s vehicle and continued travelling. His brother’s death is more precisely classified as fratricide.

Greene later received a life sentence in North Carolina for killing his brother and kidnapping his niece. His first North Carolina murder conviction was reversed on January 28, 1994, and a new trial was ordered. The available records confirm that the later North Carolina proceedings resulted in life imprisonment, but the exact final conviction and sentencing dates were not located.

Three days after Tommy’s murder, Greene reached Arkansas and went to the home of Sidney and Edna Burnett near Knoxville in Johnson County. Greene knew the couple and was familiar with their residence because they had previously provided assistance to him and his wife.

On July 23, Greene restrained 69-year-old Sidney Burnett inside the home. Burnett’s hands were bound behind his back, his feet were tied and cloth was placed around his mouth. Greene beat him with a hard object, including a can of hominy, and inflicted a deep stab wound through his back and lung. He also cut Burnett’s face from his mouth toward his ear. Medical evidence showed that Burnett was still alive during the restraint, beating, stabbing and facial injury.

Greene then shot Burnett in the chest and head with the same .25-caliber handgun used in North Carolina. Burnett’s pickup truck was taken and later recovered in Oklahoma with Greene’s palm print inside it. The available evidence suggested that resentment toward the Burnetts was a major element of the murder; robbery was not established as the sole motive, and money remained inside Burnett’s home.

On July 26, a police officer in Norman, Oklahoma, encountered Greene and initially believed he might be a patient missing from a nearby mental institution. After checking Greene’s identification, the officer learned that he was wanted for murder. Greene was arrested while carrying a loaded .25-caliber pistol and additional ammunition. Ballistics testing matched that weapon to the cartridges and bullet fragments recovered in Burnett’s case.

Greene made statements connecting himself to Burnett’s death and explaining his anger toward people whom he believed had mistreated him. He also admitted killing his brother. Authorities returned him to Arkansas and transported him between Arkansas and North Carolina as the two states pursued their respective cases.

On October 15, 1992, a Johnson County jury convicted Greene of the capital murder of Sidney Burnett and sentenced him to death. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the murder conviction in 1994 but vacated the death sentence. The court ruled that mitigating evidence had been improperly excluded and that Greene’s subsequently reversed North Carolina conviction had been used as an aggravating factor.

A second jury imposed another death sentence on February 27, 1996. Greene repeatedly attempted to waive his appeals and requested execution, but his statements and requests changed over time, prompting competency proceedings. The Arkansas Supreme Court ultimately reviewed the sentence rather than allowing an immediate execution.

In November 1998, the Arkansas Supreme Court vacated the second death sentence. The prosecution had failed to provide the jury with the North Carolina law needed to establish that Greene’s conduct against his brother and niece legally qualified as prior violent felonies. The court also ruled that additional consideration was required concerning Greene’s objections to his mental evaluation.

Greene underwent a third penalty proceeding on June 30 and July 1, 1999. The jury again sentenced him to death. In 2001, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed that sentence, and in 2004 it affirmed the rejection of his state post-conviction claims.

Greene continued pursuing federal review. On May 1, 2017, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear his federal habeas appeal, leaving the Arkansas conviction and death sentence in effect.

Arkansas scheduled Greene’s execution for November 9, 2017. His attorneys argued that severe psychosis and delusional beliefs prevented him from rationally understanding the reason for his execution. On November 7, the Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the execution so the courts could consider his challenge to the state’s procedure for determining execution competency.

Greene has not been executed. The Arkansas Department of Corrections continues to list him among the state’s death-row prisoners, and no new execution date was identified in the latest official roster reviewed.