Charles Edward Biebel, an 89-year-old retired farmer from Belleville, Illinois, was shot and killed in his wheelchair during a robbery at his home on December 22, 1978. The case drew attention because the man later convicted in the killing, 37-year-old Girvies Davis, signed a confession he said was coerced after threats from police. Reports say there was no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony directly linking Davis to the shooting; an accomplice named Richard Holman was said to have fired the fatal shot while Davis loaded stolen goods into a car outside.

Davis was tried and convicted by an all-white jury; his lawyers challenged jury selection as unconstitutional but the Supreme Court ruling they relied on was not applied retroactively. The broader file notes Davis was convicted in three other murders and later received a death sentence. The Biebel killing remains a stark example of a violent robbery that ended in the death of an elderly man.