Gerald Wayne Lawley

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Gerald Wayne Lawley, a former Birmingham firefighter, was charged with and pleaded guilty to the 1983 murder of Malcolm McRae, a businessman who owned the Signature House in Five Points South area of Birmingham. Lawley first claimed that he had accidentally shot McRae while aiming at a tossed wine bottle, but no such bottle was recovered from the scene.

Lawley had met McRae through Stuart Cathey, a jewelry maker who had an office in the upstairs of Signature House.

Gerald Wayne Lawley pleaded guilty to the charge of murder on April 9, 1984, and was sentenced by the Circuit Court of Shelby County to 25 years in the penitentiary. He subsequently filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus on September 30, 1985, and a petition for writ of error coram nobis on October 24, 1985, in which he claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective. The State filed an answer on December 6, 1985, and the trial court held a hearing on February 6, 1986, and rendered a judgment in favor of the State. At the hearing the attorney who represented Lawley testified that he advised Lawley to accept the State's offer of a 25-year sentence for the murder charge in exchange for the State's dropping a theft charge, because it was his opinion that based on the circumstances involved, Lawley would receive the maximum sentence possible if he went to trial and was found guilty of murder.

Lawley appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals; that court affirmed and then denied Lawley's application for rehearing. After reviewing the record and the respective briefs of the parties, the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama affirmed the lower court's decision.

At the time of his arrest, Lawley resided at 803 Grove Street, Homewood. Ironically, 803 Grove Street was also the site of a 2014 murder (unrelated) of a man named Rick Gerelds, by Chasity Yvonne Cates. See List of homicides in 2014.

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