Karla Faye Tucker was a convicted murderer in the United States. She gained significant attention due to her gender and the nature of her crime. In 1984, she and her accomplice Daniel Garrett murdered two people with a pickaxe during a home invasion in Houston, Texas. Their victims were Jerry Lynn Dean and Deborah Thornton.

Melvin Henry Ignatow was a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, who was tried for the 1988 murder of his former girlfriend, Brenda Sue Schaefer. The case was controversial since Ignatow was acquitted of the charge, but later admitted to killing Schaefer. Under the legal principle of double jeopardy, however, Ignatow could not be tried a second time for the murder. He was instead convicted and jailed for several instances of perjury in his grand jury testimony for the case.