The Nashville minister convicted in the 1987 murder of James Chester Matheney has committed suicide in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. According to a release from the Department of Correction, John David Terry, 58, apparently died by hanging himself. Terry had been on death row since September 1988.

Associated Press reports at the time quoted Terry as saying he was depressed about the death of his mother four years earlier and for having been passed over as bishop of his church. He was the minister of Emmanuel Church of Christ Oneness Pentacostal here. Prosecutors said Terry stole church funds, lured Matheney to the church in advance of a fishing trip, killed him, then set the church afire to give the appearance that it had been Terry who had been killed.

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