Luke Woodham
1 October 1997 · Pearl High School · Pearl, MississippiUSA

Articles

Expanding the Sample: Five School Shooters [13 pp, 619 Kb]

This article presents five school shooters from 1975 through 2007, classifies them within my typology, and compares them to the ten shooters discussed in Why Kids Kill. The five shooters are Robert Poulin, Brenda Spencer, Wayne Lo, Luke Woodham, and Asa Coon.

Luke Woodham: The Search for Justification [3 pp, 52 Kb]

This article discusses Woodham’s discrepant and contradictory statements about why he committed murder, including bullying, peer pressure, mental illness, and rejection by his girlfriend, highlighting the problems in taking explanations by school shooters at face value.

Original documents

Luke Woodham: Court Transcript [26 pp, 5.24 Mb]
Luke Woodham’s Writings [3 pp, 440 Kb]

This document collects several pieces of Woodham's writing. WARNING: this includes a graphic description of extreme cruelty used in killing his pet dog.

Woodham Court Documents

On 1 October 1997, 16-year-old Luke Woodham killed his mother at home and proceeded to his school, where he committed a rampage attack. Following his initial conviction for murder, Woodham appealed the case on procedural grounds. The documents listed below are records of the subsequent hearings.

Woodham v. Mississippi 1998 [6 pp, 102 Kb]
Woodham Court Documents
Woodham v. State of Mississippi 2001 [9 pp, 163 Kb]
Woodham Court Documents
Woodham v. Wilson 2006 [10 pp, 264 Kb]