Pearl High School shooting

As of 2022, Dr. James Justin Sledge runs the YouTube channel ESOTERICA, and collects donations on Patreon. The FAQ section of his website addresses the Pearl High School shooting.

In 2010, Woodham made a request to Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, asking for clemency; however, his request was rejected.

In 2003, Sledge pleaded guilty to federal charges of having purchased an illegal and untraceable machine gun online. Sledge's involvement in the shooting was addressed at sentencing. "I think we're dealing with a brilliant mind. I hope we're not dealing with an (sic) Hannibal Lecter," Judge Barbour said of Sledge, to which U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton replied, "That's what concerns me. He has the ability to manipulate...He was a lot closer to Luke Woodham than he led the court to believe. That's what's disturbing to me." Sledge explains on his personal website that after learning about how WWII anti-fascists had built firearms in bicycle shops, he was inspired to try to build a firearm himself out of "purely technical and historical curiosity."

There were separate trials for the murder of Woodham's mother and the school shooting. Woodham's lawyer argued at both trials that Woodham was insane at the time of the killings. Jurors rejected Woodham's insanity defense at his first trial for the murder of his mother, and he was sentenced to life in prison on June 5, 1998. His second trial took place on June 12, and he was found guilty of two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, with the jurors once again rejecting the insanity defense. He was given two life sentences for the murders and seven 20-year sentences for his attempted murder convictions. He is currently serving three life terms plus an additional 140 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2046, when he is 65 years old.

Less than three days after his last conviction, Woodham was removed from the Forrest County Jail in Hattiesburg. On June 15, 1998, Woodham entered the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) system in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Rankin County. While at CMCF Woodham underwent evaluation so he could be assigned to a permanent facility. Several weeks later, he was moved into the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) in Sunflower County. As of 2022 Woodham is incarcerated in Unit 3 of SMCI as MDOC #R4682. His location last changed on November 2, 2022.

The Pearl High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on October 1, 1997 at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, United States. The gunman, 16-year-old 11th grade student Luke Woodham (born February 5, 1981), killed two students and injured seven others at the school after killing his mother at their home earlier that morning.

The incident began on the morning of Wednesday, October 1, 1997, when Luke Woodham fatally stabbed and bludgeoned his mother, Mary Ann Woodham, as she prepared for a morning jog. At his trial, Woodham claimed that he could not remember killing his mother.

Prior to the shootings, Woodham had met Grant Boyette, another of the six charged with conspiracy to murder, and supposedly accepted an invitation to join a group Boyette had formed and called "the Kroth". During the summer of 1997, the supposed members of the Kroth allegedly made plans to terrorize Pearl High School. The plans ultimately involved Woodham entering the school and opening fire. The indictments claimed that Boyette and Sledge met several times with Woodham to convince him ``that murder was a viable means of accomplishing the purposes and goals of the shared belief system.''

On October 8, 1997, Sledge, Boyette, and the other members of the Kroth were arrested on suspicion of conspiring with Woodham to commit the shooting. During his trial, Woodham claimed to have gotten ideas of committing the murders by being involved with Sledge and Boyette. Woodham admitted to being a Satanist, and claimed that Boyette had invited him to join "The Kroth." He claimed that Boyette had told him he had "potential to do something great," and promised him that he could get his ex-girlfriend back through black magic.

Sledge, who is now an academic specializing in philosophy and religion, argues that the media and police's claims that he was part of a satanic cult lacked evidence, exemplifying the broader Satanic Panic trend of the 1980s and 1990s.