Bio

Noble Mays Jr. was born on August 15, 1953. He grew up in poor circumstances with limited education and later worked in manual labor jobs such as roofing, mining, and oilfield work. As a child, he reportedly suffered a serious head injury after being thrown from a pickup truck. That injury was later cited by his defense during appeals as a possible cause of mental impairment. Before the murder case, Mays had prior convictions for burglary and assault. In 1979, he became involved in a robbery in Texas that resulted in homicide and eventually led to his death sentence.

Murder Story

On April 7, 1979, Noble Mays Jr. and James Moore were in the Wichita Falls area when they decided to rob a passing driver. Pretending they had car trouble, they flagged down a vehicle driven by Jerry Lamb. Lamb stopped to help and allowed the two men into his car.

Once inside the vehicle, the pair produced a knife and demanded money. Lamb tried to escape, but during the struggle he was overpowered. He was struck by his own Lincoln Continental and stabbed four times in the neck and chest. Mays and Moore then fled with about $27 taken during the robbery.

Police arrested Mays two days later at his home outside Wichita Falls. Moore later testified for the prosecution and received a prison sentence. Mays was sentenced to death, though his case continued for years through retrials and appeals focused on claims of mental impairment caused by a childhood head injury. After spending years on death row, he was executed by lethal injection in Texas on April 6, 1995. He made no final statement.