Bio

John Washington Hightower was born in 1944. Public correctional records and execution reports describe him as a Black male from Georgia who was 63 years old at the time of his execution. His known criminal case arose from the deaths of his wife, Dorothy Hightower, and her two daughters, Sandra Reaves and Evelyn Reaves, in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Hightower was married to Dorothy Hightower. Court records state that the couple had been having marital problems for some time before the killings. In his later statement to police, Hightower said the problems had existed since their marriage in 1983 and that he had argued repeatedly with Dorothy and with Sandra Reaves during the week before the murders. Dorothy had asked him to move out of the home, and Hightower had made arrangements to do so.

On July 11, 1987, the day before the murders, Hightower bought the handgun and ammunition later used in the killings. In his statement, he also said he had been drinking and using cocaine during the day before returning to the home that night.

Murder Story

In the early morning hours of July 12, 1987, Dorothy Hightower, Sandra Reaves, and Evelyn Reaves were found shot inside their home at 115 McKinley in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. Dorothy Hightower and Sandra Reaves were already dead when they were found. Evelyn Reaves was still alive, but she died two days later, on July 14, 1987.

The victims were discovered by Curtis Reaves, Dorothy Hightower’s brother. He and his wife had gone to the house after 2:00 a.m. to pick up their young daughter, who had been staying there. When they arrived, Dorothy’s car was missing. Curtis Reaves entered the home and found the three women shot. He also found his young daughter, Kisha Reaves, unharmed inside the house.

Based on the description of Hightower and Dorothy Hightower’s car, police stopped Hightower at about 4:30 a.m. on July 12, 1987. He was driving Dorothy’s car. Officers arrested him without incident. A small-caliber handgun, later identified as the murder weapon, was found on the driver’s side floorboard of the car. Investigators found flesh and blood on the weapon, and Hightower’s clothing was also bloodstained.

Hightower was taken first to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and then returned to Baldwin County. Officers advised him of his rights more than once. At first, he declined to make a statement, but later that morning he gave statements admitting that he had shot all three victims. The trial court later found those statements voluntary and admissible.

In his statement, Hightower said he returned to the home at about 10:30 p.m. on July 11, 1987, and placed the gun under the pillow in the bedroom he shared with Dorothy. At about 3:00 a.m., after the victims had gone to sleep, he retrieved the weapon and began shooting.

Hightower admitted that he first shot Dorothy Hightower in the left side of the head. He then went into Sandra Reaves’s bedroom. Sandra got out of bed when he approached, then lay back down. Hightower shot her twice. Evelyn Reaves tried to flee, but Hightower caught her at the front door and shot her as she attempted to run back into the living room. He fired at Evelyn several times, clearing the gun after it jammed.

Hightower did not shoot the 3-year-old child in the house. According to the Georgia Attorney General’s summary of his statement, he said he did not shoot her because he “didn’t have any problems with the baby.” After the shootings, he left in Dorothy Hightower’s car.

Autopsies showed that Dorothy Hightower and Sandra Reaves died from gunshot wounds to the head. Dorothy had one gunshot wound to the head, while Sandra had two gunshot wounds to the left side of the head. Evelyn Reaves also died from a gunshot wound to the head after being shot twice on the left side of the head. Firearms evidence linked bullets from the scene to the handgun recovered from the car Hightower was driving.

Hightower was initially indicted during the July 1987 term in Baldwin County and later reindicted during the January 1988 term. After a change of venue, the case was tried in Morgan County. On May 3, 1988, a jury found Hightower guilty of three counts of murder. On May 4, 1988, the jury recommended death sentences for the murders.

The jury found aggravating circumstances for each murder, based on the fact that each killing was committed while Hightower was engaged in another murder. The trial court imposed death sentences for the murder convictions.

The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Hightower’s convictions and death sentences on November 30, 1989. His later state and federal habeas challenges were denied. In 2004, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of federal habeas relief, and in 2006, after remand from the U.S. Supreme Court for reconsideration under Miller-El v. Dretke, the Eleventh Circuit again rejected his Batson-related claim.

On June 26, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hightower’s final application to suspend the effect of the denial of certiorari. That same evening, John Washington Hightower was executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Hightower was pronounced dead at 7:59 p.m. Execution reports state that the process was delayed because officials had difficulty finding a vein.