Inmate who murdered oil executive wins court ruling and dies on same day

William Cody sued corrections officials, alleging a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights

An inmate who won a favorable court ruling Friday in his lawsuit against prison officials died on the same day that the opinion was released.

The Department of Corrections announced Saturday that William Cody died March 22 at the Jameson Annex to the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Cody, 77, had been an inmate since 1978, serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in Tripp County.

Cody was convicted of murdering a wealthy oil executive in Winner who, according to a 1980 profile of the case, flaunted his wealth around town and was not well liked.

Cody, who lived in Rapid City, bludgeoned Edmund Brown – owner of Brown Oil Co. –  and Brown’s pet poodle to death in February of 1978. He then went to Omaha, where he left behind his pickup truck and flew to Las Vegas. While in Vegas, “he lived like a wealthy would-be showman and had a series of encounters with a prostitute and other ladies of the evening,” according to an Argus Leader account published in 1980. Cody billed himself as a hypnotist.

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