The State of Mississippi has officially petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to deny the request of a convicted murderer to review the decisions of its courts in his case.

Incarcerated since his arrest in May 2017, Willie Cory Godbolt of Bogue Chitto was convicted in February 2020 of capital murder in the slaying of Austin Edwards, Jordan Blackwell, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy William Durr, and Sheila Burage; the murders of Ferral Burage, Mitchell, Brenda May and Toccara May; the attempted murder of Deputy Tim Kees, and the kidnappings of Xavier Lilly and LaPeatra Stafford. Godbolt received the death penalty, plus life in prison, plus 40 years. 

He has previously been denied requests to speak before the State Supreme Court and all of his Circuit Court convictions and sentences have been upheld. On Aug. 21, 2024, he petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and all of the court opinions given on it.

On March 12, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a Brief in Opposition to Godbolt’s request.

“Petitioner [Godbolt] murdered eight people during an hours-long killing spree. A jury convicted him of capital murder (among other crimes) and sentenced him to death,” reads the introduction to the petition. “The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed, rejected (among other claims) [his] challenges to four evidentiary rulings, to a ruling on a psychiatric evaluation … and to trial counsel’s performance. … The question presented is whether this Court should review the Mississippi Supreme Court’s fact-bound rejection of [Godbolt’s] claims when that decision correctly applies settled legal standards, does not raise any lower-court conflict, and does not present any recurring question of federal law …”

The State’s opposition presents a summary of the facts of the case, and each of the decisions the Court was asked to review, concluding that Godbolt “gives no reason to question the lower court’s application of state law or its view of the record, nor does he identify any federal question warranting this Court’s review now.”

Godbolt remains in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.