1997 Pearl High School shooting

On the morning of October 1, 1997, 16-year-old 11th-grade student Luke Woodham fatally stabbed and bludgeoned his 50-year-old mother, Mary Ann Woodham, at their home in Pearl, Mississippi, as she prepared for a morning jog. An autopsy found eleven slash wounds and seven stab wounds, including wounds to the heart and lungs. At his trial, Woodham said he could not remember killing his mother.

Woodham then drove his mother's car to Pearl High School, concealing a rifle beneath a trench coat. Before the shooting began, he handed a manifesto to fellow student Justin Sledge, who gathered friends and took shelter in the school library. A former student later testified that Sledge had warned others not to turn around regardless of what they heard. Woodham shot and killed 17-year-old senior Lydia Kaye Dew and 16-year-old junior Christina Michelle Menefee, his former girlfriend, and wounded seven other students. Assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a pistol from his truck, confronted Woodham as he attempted to flee in the vehicle, and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

Within a week, police arrested six other students, including Grant Boyette, on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, alleging Woodham had been involved with a group formed by Boyette. Notebooks given to Sledge before the shooting also described the earlier killing of Woodham's dog. Conspiracy charges against the minors involved were later dropped at the request of the district attorney, who cited difficulty proving the accusations under Mississippi law. Boyette, who was 18 at the time, was convicted and sentenced to a boot-camp program at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman along with five years of supervised probation.

Woodham faced separate trials for the killing of his mother and the school shooting. His attorney argued an insanity defense at both trials, which jurors rejected each time. He was sentenced to life in prison on June 5, 1998, for his mother's murder. In a second trial that began June 12, 1998, he was convicted on two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, receiving two life sentences plus seven 20-year sentences. He is serving three life terms plus 140 years and will be eligible for parole in 2046. A 2010 clemency request to the Governor of Mississippi was denied. As of May 2025, Woodham remains incarcerated in the Mississippi Department of Corrections system.

Following the shooting, Mississippi made murder on school property a capital crime.