A newly published book is renewing attention on a more than two-decade-old Baldwin County murder case, questioning the evidence that sent a man to prison for life without the possibility of parole.
The book, titled “Life Without Jurisdiction,” examines the case of Murray “Bubba” Lawrence Jr., who was convicted in 2005 in the 2003 murder of Brandon Hastings, a Baldwin County man. Lawrence was sentenced to life without parole. According to the book, there was no physical evidence connecting Lawrence to the crime, and the conviction rested on testimony from co-defendant Jarius McNeil, who was reportedly the last person known to have been with Hastings before his death.
How the Book Came Together
The project traces back to 2016, when Paul ipp, co-author of the book, was introduced to the case by then-Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson, who encouraged him to look into it.
“She [Wilson] said, ‘You can’t explain this story to people because there are so many ups and downs. We’ve got to write a book,’” ipp recalled. “That’s where the idea came from. My only condition was that we name the people who are responsible for this.”
ipp spent two years reviewing documents and researching the case before committing to the project. He obtained a written transcript of the case from Lawrence’s father — a document running roughly 2,200 pages. To make sense of the material, ipp reached out to Nancy Koerner, a writer and researcher he had met while living in Belize, and asked her to help condense the transcript into a synopsis.
The work was intensive: ipp and Koerner spent about eight hours a day for two to three weeks sifting through the documents. Once finished, ipp said he used the synopsis as a way to try to attract legal interest in the case, approaching organizations including Alabama Appleseed and the Equal Justice Initiative.
“Some of them do DNA, some of them do extended sentences and other specifics, but there’s nothing for life without [parole cases]. It falls in a crack,” ipp said, describing the difficulty of finding an organization willing to take on the case.
A Difficult Search for Legal Help
ipp said finding sustained legal representation for the case has been challenging, with several attorneys who worked on it eventually moving to other firms or stepping away from the case entirely. In 2025, ipp said the team hired an attorney to file a Rule 32 petition — a request asking the court to re-examine Lawrence’s detention and, if it was found unlawful, order his release. That petition, according to ipp, ultimately fell through, leaving the case at a standstill once again.
Determined to keep the case in public view, ipp worked alongside Wilson and Koerner for nearly five months to consolidate their research into a 164-page book. “Life Without Jurisdiction” was self-published in January under the name Alabama Exposure and Accountability LLC, rather than under the authors’ own names.
“We decided to write the book under the blanket of Alabama Exposure and Accountability LLC and not put our names on it as authors because, simply, we did not want to distract from what we were talking about,” ipp said. “We’re not in this for accolades or anything. We’re just looking for justice.”
ipp said the book went through 10 rewrites before publication as the team worked to be meticulous about the information included.
What Comes Next
ipp said he hopes continued attention on the book will lead to further investigation into the case and, eventually, additional legal avenues that were not detailed in the book itself. He has also floated the idea of a documentary adaptation. ipp said he previously worked on the 2016 documentary “Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee,” and hopes a similar format could eventually bring Lawrence’s story to a wider audience.
“Life Without Jurisdiction” is available for purchase online through Walmart and Amazon, with additional information available through the Justice for Murray Lawrence Jr. website.