cocaine from Wilson and another boy. As Underwood was driving away, Wilson fired five shots at him. One bullet hit Underwood in the head and the other went through his arm and lung, before stopping in his spine. Underwood survived, and later testified that Wilson then "turned around and just casually walked off." After initially claiming self-defense, Wilson admitted to shooting Underwood and served time in a juvenile detention center. Robert Earl Butts Jr. Butts was born in 1977. His parents separated due to his father's behavior; Butts' father was mentally ill and frequently in and out of mental institutions and prisons. His mother abused alcohol and crack cocaine and, by her own admission, was never involved in her son's life. During his youth, Butts dropped out of school and was arrested for burglary and shoplifting. Murder On March 28, 1996, Wilson and Butts came across Parks, who was off-duty, outside a Walmart in Milledgeville, Georgia. Butts had worked with Parks at a local Burger King and asked if they could get a ride in his car. Parks agreed and took the two men in his car. Butts was sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle and Wilson was sitting in the back as they left the parking lot. Parks was then fatally shot by one of the two men with a sawn-off shotgun. He was ordered out of his car and shot in the back of his head as he lay on the ground. His dead body was found lying face down on a residential street not far from the parking lot. Butts and Wilson fled in the stolen car, which they later burned after being unsuccessful in their attempt at finding someone to sell it to. Trials Butts and Wilson were arrested four days after the murder, and each man accused the other of pulling the trigger. They were both gang members in the Folk Nation street gang. Prosecutors claimed they murdered Parks to achieve a higher status within their gang. Both men were convicted of murder. On November 7, 1997, Wilson was sentenced to death. On November 21, 1998, Butts was also sentenced to death. In December 1999, the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed on direct appeal. Wilson next petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in state court. The petition was denied in a written opinion by the state superior court, which was summarily