William Joseph Burns was convicted of capital murder of his mother-in-law, Tersey Elizabeth Cooley, in the commission of rape, statutory burglary, and forcible sodomy at her home in Edinburg, Virginia.  

On September 20, 1998, Burns started fighting with his wife, Penny, after drinking heavily that day.  Due to previous physical abuse, Penny left the house to stay with friends even though during a previous    violent altercation, Penny had stayed with her mother.  On September 21, 1998, Penny’s sister, Linda, found their mother dead on the bedroom floor and phoned police.  When police arrived, Cooley had 24 rib fractures and was dead from multiple injuries to the head.  An autopsy later revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the chest, which resulted in the rupture of Cooley’s heart and the compression of the neck.   

Subsequent to discovering the body, police had set up a road block to learn if any drivers had traveled through the area during the time of the murder.  At that time, Burns drove up and after admitting to being at scene of the crime, he was taken into custody for fingerprinting.  Burns consented to give samples of his hair and bodily fluids, which then linked him to DNA evidence to the murder and rape.   

A jury convicted Burns of capital murder in the commission of a rape.  During the penalty phase of the trial, defense counsel introduced evidence of child abuse by Burns alcoholic father.  A former correctional officer also testified that while in prison for an earlier conviction, Burns had never been violent and had always been respectful. Burns also had a history of mental illness and took medication for chronic depression.  

The jury nonetheless found a high probability of future dangerousness and vileness and recommended that Burns be sentenced to death.  Burns was sentenced to 18 years for the burglary conviction and life imprisonment for each of the convictions of rape and forcible sodomy. 

On appeal, attorneys for Burns filed 46 separate assignments of error, which they later reduced to 26 questions on appeal.  However, they had failed to file a brief for several of the assignments of error and accordingly, the Supreme Court of Virginia deemed them waived and refused to consider them.   On March 2, 2001, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the convictions and death sentence.

Defense subsequently raised the issue of mental retardation as provided by Virginia statute for capital murder convictions prior to April 29, 2003.  The Warden of Sussex objected but the Court ruled against Sussex and remanded the petition for  a writ of habeas corpus to the Circuit Court of Shenandoah County. [i]  Burns IQ is 77, in the low-average range.[ii]