Sentence in 1973 Chickamauga murder finally resolved

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LaFAYETTE, Ga. - Forty-three years ago, Eddie Sizemore found his father in the back of the family's Chickamauga grocery store, beaten and shot, blood streaming down his chest.

"I lived with this for a long time," Sizemore testified Friday afternoon during a court hearing in Walker County. "I still can't "

Sizemore stopped. His face tightened. He tapped the wood in front of him, took a breath.

He did not look to his right, where his father's killer sat.

"I see it every day," Sizemore said. "How he was shot. How he was killed. Everything. I see everything."

Wilburn Wiley Dobbs killed Roy Lee Sizemore in December 1973. A jury convicted him of murder in May 1974 and sentenced him to death. But a higher court's ruling, followed by years of waiting, brought Dobbs and his victim's family back into the courtroom Friday.

Dobbs' guilt was never disputed. But a federal appeals court ruled in 1998 that he deserved a new sentencing hearing, saying his first lawyer didn't even try to fight against the death penalty.

Dobbs sat in prison for the next 18 years. His file stayed in the Walker County Courthouse, where defense attorneys and prosecutors exchanged motions at a glacial pace.

But on Friday, after about 20 minutes in front of Judge Kristina Cook Graham, the case was finished. Dobbs' attorneys proposed a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin accepted the offer. Otherwise, he would have had to call a jury and try to convince them to sentence Dobbs to death, presenting them with evidence as old as the Nixon administration.

In a macabre reunion, Dobbs and his victim's son sat across from each other, each man's appearance a sign of how much time has passed since the killing. Dobbs, 67, had to undergo surgery to remove his prostate, according to a 2014 motion from one of his lawyers. He has a leaking heart valve and an abnormally slow heart rate.

Sizemore, 66, is bald now. He wore glasses and hearing aids when he took the stand Friday. His voice was like gravel. When he finished his testimony and returned to his seat in the audience, he had to squeeze past his sister, who is in a wheelchair and did not speak during the hearing.

The judge told Dobbs he could address Sizemore's family Friday, after all his years in prison. He declined. So did the only member of his family who attended the hearing, when approached by a reporter.

As he left court, Sizemore said he was happy the case was over, finally. He wondered if he wouldn't have to think about it as much anymore.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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