Larry Griffin was born on September 23, 1954, and spent most of his life in St. Louis, Missouri. Although details about his upbringing and personal life remain limited, he entered adulthood in a city deeply affected by crime in the late 1970s. Griffin maintained a relatively low public profile until June 1980, when a single drive-by shooting brought him into the spotlight. Despite that event, there is little record of his life before the crime—no known nicknames, no prior criminal issues, and no known employment or family background stood out publicly. His trial later revealed he was a 26-year-old Black man tried under Missouri’s capital murder statute.

On June 26, 1980, 19-year-old Quintin Moss was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in St. Louis, Missouri. Moss was allegedly involved in drug dealing at the time. Larry Griffin was arrested and charged with the murder. The prosecution's case relied heavily on the testimony of a single eyewitness, Robert Fitzgerald, who claimed to have seen Griffin at the scene. No physical evidence linked Griffin to the crime.

Griffin was convicted of capital murder on June 26, 1981, and sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial and subsequent appeals. Despite his claims, all appeals were denied, and he was executed by lethal injection on June 21, 1995.

In 2005, a decade after Griffin's execution, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund conducted a year-long investigation into the case. The investigation uncovered significant issues, including the revelation that a man injured in the same shooting stated Griffin was not involved, and the first police officer on the scene provided a new account that contradicted the trial testimony of the sole eyewitness. Additionally, the investigation identified three other men as potential suspects, all of whom were incarcerated for other murders. These findings prompted the St. Louis City Circuit Attorney's Office to reopen the case.