Frank James Coppola

Frank Joseph Coppola (February 25, 1944 – August 10, 1982) was a police officer from Portsmouth, Virginia, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 capital murder of Muriel Hatchell although he maintained his innocence until his execution.

Hatchell was bound with Venetian blind cords and then had her head slammed repeatedly into the floor, allegedly by Coppola, until she died. Coppola and his accomplices fled with $3,100 in cash and some rings from the crime scene. On September 26, 1978, Coppola was convicted of first-degree capital murder and sentenced to death in Virginia's electric chair. He waived his appeals and was executed on August 10, 1982, the first person executed in Virginia since the US Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976. He was also the first person executed in Virginia since 1962. The resulting execution was botched, and an attorney who was present later stated that it took two 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Coppola.