Three Sentenced to Death for Drug-Related Murders

SENTENCING March 1993

Three Virginia men were sentenced to death February 16 under a federal law for murders committed in the furtherance of the drug trade (AP, "Three Sentenced to Death Under U.S. Law," New York Times, 2/19/93, A12).

The three defendants, Richard Tipton, 22, Cory Johnson, 24, and James Roane Jr., 26, all of Richmond, joined David Chandler, an Alabama drug dealer sentenced in 1991, in receiving the federal death sentence for murder in the furtherance of a drug operation. Chandler's case is on appeal.

The three Virginia men were members of a gang that killed 11 people in a 45-day period in order to expand drug operations and eliminate suspected police informants, according to Richmond police.