Both "Killings" by Andre Dubus and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner focus on premeditated murders. In "Killings", Matt Fowler kills the man who has shot his son. Fowler's friend Willis Trottier helps Fowler plan and carry out the murder. Richard Strout killed Matt Fowler's son, Frank, because Frank was having an affair with Strout's wife. Trottier owns a bar that Strout frequents; one night, he and Fowler wait for Strout to leave the bar so they can take him to an isolated road. There Fowler shoots Strout, and Fowler and Trottier bury his body in a grave they have dug days earlier.

In "A Rose for Emily", Emily Grierson also commits premeditated murder. She calmly buys arsenic at the drug store to poison her lover Homer Barron. While the story does not explicitly indicate that an accomplice is involved in Homer's death, it is possible that Emily's employee Tobe, who is the only other person in the house on a daily basis, may know that Emily has hidden Homer's corpse in her home.

However, the motives of Matt Fowler and Emily Grierson are quite different. Fowler cannot live with the idea that his son's killer, who has not yet been jailed for his crime, is free. He is hurt by the fact that his wife has encountered Strout in town, and Strout is able to enjoy his life before he reports to prison.

On the other hand, Emily has two motives for killing Homer Barron. Emily is angry that Homer is planning to leave her because she wants to marry him. More importantly, however, she does not want to be alone. By killing him and keeping his body in a locked room, she is able to sleep with his corpse for the rest of her life.

Though both stories focus on premeditated murder, the main characters have quite different motives for killing.