Frank James Coppola

Frank Joseph Coppola (February 25, 1944 – August 10, 1982) was a police officer from Portsmouth, Virginia, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 capital murder of Muriel Hatchell. He maintained his innocence until his execution.[1]

Hatchell was bound with Venetian blind cords and then had her head slammed repeatedly into the floor by Coppola until she died. Coppola and his accomplices fled with $3,100 in cash and some rings from the crime scene.[2] On September 26, 1978, Coppola was convicted of first-degree capital murder and sentenced to death in Virginia's electric chair. His conviction and death sentence were upheld after an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia.[3] Coppola waived his subsequent appeals and was executed on August 10, 1982,[4] the first person executed in Virginia since the US Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976.[5] He was also the first person executed in Virginia since 1962. The resulting execution was botched as his head and leg caught fire during the execution. This provoked activists to protest calling the method of execution inhumane. Coppola became somewhat of a martyr to the prisoners. An attorney who was present later stated that it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Coppola.[6]