Thomas Lane was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of his wife. According to court documents Thomas Lane and Theresa Lane were separated and she was living at a friends home. Her body would be found badly beaten in a bathtub at the friends home. Thomas Lane would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Thomas Lane 2021 Information
| Inmate: | LANE, THOMAS ROBERT |
| AIS: | 0000Z726 |
| Institution: | HOLMAN PRISON |
Thomas Lane More News
Convicted of killing his wife in 2003, Thomas Lane appeared for his sentencing in the retrial of the capital murder case Tuesday morning. Judge Charles Graddick ruled Lane will be sentenced to death, the Mobile County District Attorney’s office confirmed.
Lane’s estranged wife, Theresa, a Filipino immigrant, was found dead in the bathtub of her friend’s home in Irvington, where she lived during her separation from her husband. Theresa Lane suffered injuries consistent with blunt force trauma.
Signs inside the home did not point investigators to forced entry, however a chisel mark inside the home’s front door frame was matched by a forensic specialist to a tool found inside Thomas Lane’s truck in the days after the murder.
The prosecution, led by Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich, built a case around Lane’s desire for money and anxiety about moving on with a new wife.
Dependent on his wife for income, Rich demonstrated records pointing to Lane’s financial ruin as he prepared for divorce.
Testimony from neighbors and others who encountered Lane revealed Lane was very vocal about his vitriol for his wife and plans after he was free from marriage.
A local Nissan dealer remembered Lane saying, “The only good woman is a dead one.” A coworker of Lane’s wife testified that Lane asked her to pass along a message to his wife if she chose not to return: “You will be sorry.”
The statement of the case’s one eyewitness, a deceased auto-mechanic, was read to the court. The man’s testimony identified Thomas Lane’s bright green pickup truck at the scene during the time of the homicide. However, when it came to the physical description of the person, the mechanic says he was certain the person who climbed out of the truck was not of Thomas Lane’s stature.
Jurors in March recommended Graddick sentence Lane to death.
Lane, in letters to AL.com immediately after his recent conviction, says this loose end should be explored further. In the letters Lane maintains his innocence.
“There is another guy in Irivington claiming, ‘There is someone on death row because of me,’ referring to my wife’s murder. This person refuses to come forward because he feels Ashley Rich will make life hard for him if I was to be found innocent,” Lane wrote.
Lane was sentenced to death in the first trial for the case in 2006. The ruling was overturned when he appealed the judge’s removal of his lawyer, who was thought to be a key witness. The lawyer, however, never took the stand. Lane was appointed a lawyer, despite.
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2016/06/mobile_man_accused_of_killing_3.html