Execution set for man convicted in 1994 fatal Baldwin County beating

A man sentenced to death in the 1994 fatal beating of a man in Baldwin County is set to be executed March 31, according to a news release from the Georgia Attorney General's office.

The Superior Court of Baldwin County issued an order Friday setting a seven-day window for 41-year-old Joshua Daniel Bishop to be executed that lasts from noon March 31 to noon April 7. The execution is scheduled for the night of March 31, although a time has not been announced.

Leverett Morrison, 43, a Milledgeville native visiting from Savannah, drove Bishop and another man, Mark Braxley, to a bar June 24, 1994. Bishop and Braxley schemed to steal Morrison's car, according to the news release.

Evidence at Bishop's 1996 trial showed after leaving the bar and driving to Braxley's trailer in the early hours of the next morning, Bishop beat Morrison in the head and face with a blunt object.

Later, after his arrest, Bishop admitted to authorities he struck Morrison with a wooden rod until he stopped breathing, according to the release.

No murder weapon was ever recovered.

Bishop and Braxley wrapped Morrison's body in a sheet, loaded it into the back of Morrison's 1984 Jeep Wagoneer and drove him to a nearby Dumpster.

Unable to toss the body into the Dumpster, they left Morrison on the ground where he was discovered several hours later, according to the release.

The men drove Morrison's car into a nearby wooded area and set it on fire.

Bishop also confessed to killing another man, Ricky Lee Willis, about two weeks before Morrison's death and burying the body in woods near Braxley's trailer, according to the release.

Jurors deliberated two hours before finding the then 21-year-old Bishop guilty of murder and armed robbery.

During the sentencing phase of Bishop's trial, then-district attorney Fred Bright said Willis died June 9, 1994. He was beaten with a blunt object, had eight deep lacerations on his head and face, had four broken ribs and his throat was cut with a knife.

Bright told jurors Bishop and Braxley buried Willis in the woods behind Braxley's father's trailer and had to break the man's legs to get him into the shallow grave.

Braxley, 57, pleaded guilty to his part in Morrison's killing and was sentenced to life in prison. Although he also was charged in Willis' death, that charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain.

State prison records show Braxley is serving his sentence at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

Bishop is being held at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, home to the state's death chamber.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Execution set for man convicted in 1994 fatal Baldwin County beating ."