Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sedley Alley (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. Courcelles 05:38, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Sedley Alley
AfDs for this article: 
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Murderer who fails WP:PERP. There are general WP:ONEVENT issues with the article, and a previous AFD closed as no consensus in 2006. Claritas § 17:04, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Crime-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 23:45, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 23:45, 2 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep As I said in the first nomination, there has been an enormous amount of news coverage regarding the crime and his execution. The crime was notable (one of the most horrific in Shelby county history), the execution was notable (only the second one in Tennessee in 45 years), and the fact that there are still questions about his guilt or innocence is notable. The DNA evidence was never tested, and the Shelby County prosecutor's office still refuses to hand over the evidence for testing. The crime was a major part of the book "Journey into Darkness" by John Douglas (former FBI profiler). Furthermore, since Alley's execution his case has been repeatedly used as an example by The Innocence Project as case in which an innocent man was executed. At one time this was a lengthy and detailed article, however death penalty activists continue to butcher it and remove details of the crime, info about the trial, and Alley's life prior to murder. Martylunsford  —Preceding undated comment added 04:11, 3 September 2010 (UTC).


 * Delete per nom. What we see in in this version, the most substantial version, there is a substantial block of unsourced text, and typically the sort of arguments used by anti-capital punishment activists to stay an execution. I believe it was inadequately attributed, and was rightly removed. Of course, if Marty can source it to reliable third party sources, we should have another look. As it stands, it should go. We don't have articles about all capital cases, and that is also right and proper. Ohconfucius  ¡digame! 05:28, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

 Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Ron Ritzman (talk) 00:00, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment. I'm currently on the fence about this one, so I plan to wait a few days. I agree with Ohconfucius that material was removed due to unsourced text (which appeared to have been copied), not because of "activists", and that not every capital case is notable. On the other hand, this one does get a fair number of GBooks, GNews, and GScholar hits. Why? I'm not sure. It would be great if a better claim to notability could be made in a properly-sourced article. Some decision (redirect/merge/rename/delete) will also need to be made regarding the article of the victim, Suzanne Marie Collins. Location (talk) 19:55, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so consensus may be reached.


 * Delete - Asswipe Murderer Who Got Executed is a news story, not an encyclopedia topic. Carrite (talk) 02:58, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep Some coverage around his death and almost certainly a whole lot more around his trial and sentencing (it's not on the net but is referred to in the current coverage). Stuartyeates (talk) 09:56, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep WP:ONEVENT maybe, but large enough to meet notability and with significant legal tentacles VASterling (talk) 18:02, 14 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep on the basis of the book by Douglas. That seems enough to set this apart as a non-routine example.     DGG ( talk ) 07:38, 15 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Keep per scorpiondollprinces's comments in the first nomination. Namely, "The person has been the primary subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the person." per WP:BIO. Subject is the the focus of regional and national news stories in Nashville News, The Tennessean,Tennessee Independent Media Center, Eyewitness News (WPTY TV), WBIR TV News, WREG TV News, The Nashville Post,CBS News, MSNBC,WVLT TV News, and The Jackson Sun (just to mention a few). A google search seems to yield plenty of multiple, non-trivial coverage of Sedley Alley's crime, trial, appeal, and execution. Sam1174 (talk) 18:09, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.