Carl Eugene Kelly was convicted and sentenced to death at only 22 years of age after he and accomplice, Thomas Graves, robbed a 7-Eleven in Waco, Texas, and killed two young men on September 2, 1980. After stealing $30 for drugs, Kelly and Graves abducted the store clerk, Steven Pryor, stole his car and drove him out to Cameron Park. They shot him several times then threw his body off a 60-foot cliff. David Riley, a transient who was asleep in Pryor's car, was also killed.
After his conviction, Kelly spent the next 12 years waiting his execution. The efforts of his lawyers were successful at delaying it through the appeals process. Appeals were made that Kelly hadn't intended on participating in the killings with Graves, that evidence used in the trial were seized illegally, and that he was on drugs at the time of the crime that affected his judgement. Kelly was executed by lethal injection on August 22, 1993 at 12:22 a.m. Charles L. Brown, the former assistant director for public information, witnessed the execution. "My job was to witness many executions, it was not because I was so pro capital punishment," Brown said. "I didn't really pay that much attention to them."