In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, then 20 years old, was obsessed with a 16-year-old girl named Stacie Reed. But she wasn't interested in him.

In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, then 20 years old, was obsessed with a 16-year-old girl named Stacie Reed. But she wasn't interested in him.

Upon learning that she had an African-American boyfriend, Paul became furious, especially since he was a self-proclaimed white supremacist. He went to her house and demanded that she go out with him, and when she refused, he killed her.

Then he went downstairs to pour himself a glass of iced tea, while waiting for Stacie's 14-year-old sister, Kristie, to come home from school. When Kristie asked him where her sister was, he dragged her to the basement and stabbed her, leaving her for dead. Or so he thought.

The girls' stepfather returned home and, upon discovering their bodies, called the police and an ambulance. After intensive treatment, young Kristie ultimately survived. The scars on her neck attested to the brutality of the attack. She quickly identified Paul Powell as the murderer.

Paul Powell showed no remorse in court; worse, he called his victims stupid. He was convicted of capital murder and several other charges, making him eligible for the death penalty.

When he was sentenced to death, his attitude quickly changed. He wept and begged for a reduced sentence, and unfortunately, this legal loophole was granted. The death penalty was thus replaced by life imprisonment. The initial death sentence was dropped due to insufficient evidence to justify aggravating circumstances. Such evidence was required to authorize the death penalty.

Believing he had finally escaped the death penalty, he sent a damning letter to the prosecutor, who in this case was Paul Ebert. Essentially, he confessed to every single detail of the double murder, including the attempted rape of the girls. He also expressed his delight at the verdict.

"Since I've already been convicted of first-degree murder, the Supreme Court stipulates that I can no longer receive the death penalty. So I thought I could tell you what happened next on January 29, 1999, and show you how stupid you all are. I guess I forgot to mention all these details during the interrogations, ha ha! You feel bad for being so stupid...and for saving me?"

He then wrote a letter to his then-girlfriend, in which he said he had planned all the murders, including those of the Reed sisters' parents (something he was unable to carry out). He also sent death threats to Lorraine Reed, the girls' mother.

His letter proved the attempted rape that occurred during the murders, which constituted an aggravating circumstance. In the first trial, the prosecutor was unable to prove the attempted rape necessary to justify the death penalty. But now he had the evidence he was looking for.

The prosecutor immediately retrieved the letters and sent them to the judge. The judge considered these letters as new evidence and ordered a new trial. All these letters sent to the various parties involved made him guilty of aggravated murder.

He was sentenced to death for the second time after the trial in 2003. Shortly afterwards, Paul Warner Powell was executed in the electric chair