Have you ever seen someone treat someone else horribly and receive instant karma?

In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, a 20-year-old man, was obsessed with 16-year-old Stacie Reed, who wasn’t into him.

Upon learning she had an African-American boyfriend, he grew furious, as a self-proclaimed white supremacist. He broke into her house and demanded to date her. When she resisted his advances, he killed her.

He then took the time to go downstairs and pour a glass of iced tea, waiting for Kristie Reed, Stacie’s 14-year-old sister, to come home from school. When Kristie asked him where her sister was, he dragged her down to the basement and stabbed her, leaving her to die.

Or so he thought.

The girls’ stepfather arrived home early, and upon finding their bodies, he frantically searched for the phone to call the police and EMTs.

Upon extensive treatment, Stacie’s 14-year-old sister ultimately survived, the scars on her neck serving as visible evidence of the brutal attack. She was easily able to identify Paul Powell as the killer.

Paul Powell showed no remorse in court, even going so far as to call the victims ‘stupid’. He was then convicted of Capital Murder and multiple other subsequent charges, making him eligible for Capital Punishment.

When he was sentenced to death, his attitude quickly changed. He cried and begged for mercy. Unfortunately, mercy would come in the form of a legal loophole that switched his death sentence to a life sentence. His initial death penalty was reversed because there was inadequate proof of a special circumstance against the murder victim needed to authorize the death penalty.

Believing he was safe from the death penalty due to double jeopardy, he sent an abusive letter to the prosecuting attorney in his case, Paul Ebert. He essentially admitted to every single detail, including the attempted rape of both girls, bragging about what he got away with.

"Since I have already been indicted on first degree murder and the Va. Supreme Court said that I can't be charged with capital murder again, I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan. 29, 1999, to show you how stupid all of y'all are. I guess I forgot to mention these events when I was being questioned. Ha ha! Do you just hate yourself for being so stupid... and saving me?"

He then sent a letter to his then girlfriend, telling her that he had planned all of the killings, including the murder of the Reed girls’ parents (which he didn’t carry out). He also sent death threats to Lorraine Reed, the mother of the two girls.

His letter admitted to an attempted rape of the victim as part of the murder, which was a special circumstance. In the first trial, the prosecutor had been unable to prove an attempted rape required to authorize the death penalty, but he now had all the evidence he needed.

The attorney immediately took the letters and sent them to a judge. The judge looked at the letters, declared that there was new evidence, and ordered a new trial. The letters he sent to his girlfriend, the attorney, and Lorraine Reed proved beyond a doubt that he was guilty of Capital Murder.

He was convicted and sentenced to death a second time after another full trial in 2003. Not long after, Paul Warner Powell was executed by electric chair.