Bio

Jose Martinez High was from Georgia and became involved in violent criminal proceedings as a young man. His exact age at the time of the murder became one of the most disputed parts of his case. At trial, his date of birth was reportedly given as August 19, 1958, which would have made him 17 when Bonnie Bulloch was killed. Years later, Georgia authorities stated that his birth certificate showed August 19, 1956, which would have made him 19 at the time of the crime. Amnesty International noted that the issue remained disputed.

Before the Taliaferro County murder case, High was also connected to separate Richmond County charges. A Georgia Court of Appeals decision stated that High was charged with three murders, six kidnappings, two rapes, and one armed robbery in Augusta, with those crimes occurring between August 19 and August 25, 1976. Police arrested him on August 27, 1976, after connecting him to descriptions from surviving victims and other evidence.

High’s later appeals raised questions about his mental health. Amnesty International reported that mental health experts described him as having serious mental illness, seizure disorder, significant brain damage, and borderline intellectual functioning. Prison medical records also reportedly included diagnoses of schizoaffective and depressive disorders, hallucinations, seizures, and suicidal ideation.

The capital trial jury did not hear the full later mental health evidence. Amnesty International reported that several jurors later supported clemency or expressed concerns about the case, including uncertainty about which defendant fired the fatal shot and concern about High’s mental condition. These concerns did not overturn his conviction or stop the execution.

Murder Story

On July 26, 1976, Jose Martinez High, Nathan Brown, and Judson Ruffin robbed a service station near Crawfordville, Georgia, in Taliaferro County. Henry Lee Phillips was operating the station, and his 11-year-old stepson, Bonnie Bulloch, was helping him. After taking money from the cash register, the three men forced Phillips into the trunk of their car and placed Bonnie in the passenger area.

The three men drove Phillips and Bonnie to a remote wooded area. During the drive, Bonnie was threatened and told he was going to die. The boy begged for his life. When they reached the isolated area, Phillips was removed from the trunk, and both victims were ordered to lie face down on the ground.

Shots were then fired. Bonnie Bulloch died from a gunshot wound to the head. Henry Phillips was shot in the head and wrist but survived. After regaining consciousness, Phillips found Bonnie dead and managed to reach a nearby house for help. He later identified High, Brown, and Ruffin as the men involved in the robbery, kidnapping, and shootings.

High was arrested in Richmond County on other charges and later confessed to the murder. The Georgia Attorney General’s summary states that High, Brown, and Ruffin had robbed the station, kidnapped the victims, and driven them to the remote area where they were shot.

A Taliaferro County grand jury indicted High for murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and aggravated assault. He was tried in the Superior Court of Taliaferro County and convicted by a jury. On December 1, 1978, he was sentenced to death for murder, armed robbery, and both kidnapping counts.

On direct appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed High’s convictions for murder, armed robbery, and the two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury. It vacated the convictions for possession of a firearm and aggravated assault because they merged into the other crimes. The court also affirmed the death sentence for murder and for the kidnapping with bodily injury of Bonnie Bulloch, while vacating the death sentences for armed robbery and for the kidnapping count involving Henry Phillips.

High continued to challenge his conviction and death sentence for more than two decades. His case went through direct appeal, state habeas proceedings, federal habeas proceedings, and later litigation involving a videotaped police interview and claims about mental illness, age, and responsibility for the fatal shot. The Eleventh Circuit rejected his later habeas appeal in 2000, finding that the evidence against him was overwhelming, including Phillips’s eyewitness identification and law enforcement testimony about High’s statements.

High’s execution was initially stayed in March 2001 while the Georgia Supreme Court considered whether electrocution violated the state constitution. On October 5, 2001, Georgia’s high court ruled electrocution unconstitutional under the Georgia Constitution and directed future executions to be carried out by lethal injection. High’s new execution window was then set for November 6 to November 13, 2001.

Jose Martinez High was executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia, on November 6, 2001. The Georgia Attorney General reported that the execution was carried out at approximately 8:07 p.m.