Rickey Ray Rector

Rickey Ray Rector (January 12, 1952 – January 24, 1992) was an American convicted murderer who was executed for the 1981 murder of police officer Bob Martin in Conway, Arkansas. After killing a man in a restaurant and fleeing, Rector spent three days on the run before he agreed to turn himself in. However, instead of giving himself up, he shot and killed the police officer to whom he had agreed to turn himself in. He then shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt. The attempt effectively resulted in a lobotomy. A 1991 request for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court was denied, with Justice Thurgood Marshall dissenting. Despite Rector's mental state, then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made a point of returning to Arkansas to personally handle Rector's case during the 1992 U.S. presidential election campaign.