Bio 

Stephen Anthony Mobley was born on July 13, 1965. In early 1991, Mobley stole a Walther .380 pistol from a car belonging to someone he knew. That gun later became important because it was connected to the murder of John C. Collins and to later armed robberies.

Mobley’s case later became known for an unusual legal argument. During appeals and clemency efforts, his lawyers explored whether family history and genetics could be presented as mitigating evidence related to violent behavior. Courts ultimately rejected his legal claims and upheld the conviction and death sentence.

Murder Story

Shortly after midnight on February 17, 1991, Stephen Anthony Mobley entered a Domino’s Pizza store in Hall County, Georgia. John C. Collins, the 24-year-old store manager, was working there at the time. Mobley robbed the store at gunpoint.

After taking money from the cash register, Mobley forced Collins from the front of the store to the back office. He took more money from the office and then shot Collins in the back of the head before fleeing through a side door. Physical evidence was later found to be consistent with a statement that Collins was on his knees when he was shot.

After the murder, Mobley continued committing armed robberies. Over the next three weeks, he robbed several restaurants and dry-cleaning businesses. During one later robbery, he used the same pistol connected to the Collins murder. When he realized an unmarked police car was following him, he threw the weapon from his car. Police later recovered the pistol, and Mobley was arrested after a high-speed chase.

After his arrest, Mobley confessed to police that he had robbed the Domino’s store and killed Collins. He also made statements about the murder while in custody. Prosecutors later presented evidence that Mobley had mocked the crime after incarceration, including references to Domino’s Pizza and comments about the victim.

A Hall County grand jury indicted Mobley on March 19, 1991. On February 16, 1994, a jury found him guilty of malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. On February 20, 1994, the jury recommended a death sentence. The court formally imposed the sentence on February 28, 1994.

Mobley appealed his conviction and sentence. On March 17, 1995, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed both. His later state and federal habeas petitions were also denied, although a state habeas court initially granted relief as to sentencing before the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence in 1998.

In the years before his execution, several jurors and members of John Collins’s family supported clemency, partly because life without parole had not been available as a sentencing option at the time of Mobley’s 1994 trial. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency in February 2005.

Stephen Anthony Mobley was executed by lethal injection in Georgia on March 1, 2005. His final statement included an apology and a statement that he wanted to atone for his sins. He was pronounced dead at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.