Bio 

Warren King was born in 1976 and grew up in rural Georgia. Before the 1994 murder of Karen Crosby, King had no widely reported history of violent crime. He was 18 years old when he became involved with his older cousin, Walter Smith, in a planned convenience store robbery in Surrency, Georgia. His defense later argued that his intellectual limitations and young age made him vulnerable to influence, but the jury rejected his claim that he was mentally retarded under Georgia law and sentenced him to death.

Murder Story

Shortly after midnight on September 14, 1994, Karen Crosby was closing the convenience store where she worked in Surrency, Georgia. She set the store alarm, locked the door, and walked toward her car. Warren King and Walter Smith confronted her in the parking lot. King was accused of holding Crosby at gunpoint and ordering her to “give it up.” Crosby recognized King and spoke to him by name.

Crosby threw her keys to Smith, who entered the convenience store while King remained outside with her. The store’s surveillance camera recorded Smith entering the store, the alarm sounding, and Smith running from the store. About 24 seconds after Smith ran out, the surveillance recording captured the sound of two gunshots. Crosby was shot and killed with a .380-caliber handgun.

At trial, Smith testified that he heard the shots as he ran from the store, turned, and saw Crosby falling to the ground. Smith also testified that as he and King fled the scene, King said, “I hope I killed the bitch.” King later gave a different account during the sentencing phase. He testified that Smith repeatedly yelled at him to shoot Crosby, but that he handed the gun to Smith instead. The jury rejected King’s version and found him guilty.

On September 24, 1998, King was convicted of malice murder, armed robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. On September 25, 1998, the jury fixed the sentence for murder at death. The aggravating circumstances included that the murder was committed during an armed robbery and burglary, that it was committed for money or property, and that King acted as the agent of another person, Walter Smith.

The trial court also imposed consecutive sentences for King’s other convictions: life imprisonment for armed robbery, 20 years for burglary, 20 years for aggravated assault, 10 years for false imprisonment, and 5 years for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. King appealed, and the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 2000.

King’s appeals continued for years. In 2023, the Eleventh Circuit reviewed his federal habeas claims and described his defense theories as including that Smith, not King, led the crime and shot Crosby, and that King was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. The court rejected the federal habeas claims.

In 2024, King’s attorneys raised renewed claims that the prosecution had withheld information about a deal or expectation of leniency for Walter Smith’s testimony. The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Supreme Court declined on July 2, 2024, to consider King’s claims related to the alleged improper exclusion of Black jurors during trial. Warren King has not been executed and remains under a death sentence in Georgia.