Anthony Battle was a prisoner at the Atlanta Federal Prison when he murdered a prison guard. According to court documents Anthony Battle who at the time was serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife became upset with the prison guard. Anthony would grab a ball peen hammer from a prison maintenance worker and would strike the guard several times in the head causing his death. Anthony Battle would be convicted and sent to Federal Death Row
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In 1987, Anthony Battle entered the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and sexually assaulted and murdered his wife, a serving Marine. He was convicted of first-degree felony murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a), aggravated sexual abuse in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2241(a), and second-degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1111. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Anthony Battle was moved around some and eventually transferred to the United States Penitentiary-Atlanta (“USP-A”) in 1993. On 21 December 1994, a correctional officer at USP-A, D’Antonio Washington, was found lying on the floor in Cellhouse C with blood spurting out of his head. When prison employees rushed to the scene, they found Battle standing next to a nearby vending machine. His clothing was splattered with blood. A hammer with fresh blood, which was later determined to be Officer Washington’s blood, was found behind the vending machine. Richard Boone, an inmate allowed to carry tools, had loaned the hammer to Anthony Battle to fix something in his cell. (Medical examiners later testified that Officer Washington was felled by three great blows to the head with a hammer.)
On the day of Washington’s death, Anthony Battle made an incriminating statement, which was eventually suppressed; but he later confessed again to a correctional officer. Later, federal agents interrogated Battle; and he told them he was “frustrated” at USP-A and that he was “tired of being bossed around.” Battle said that he took the hammer and decided to attack the first correctional officer he saw. Battle was charged with Officer Washington’s murder.