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Posted by: kwflatbed



William Earl Lynd is seen in an undated prison photo. The U.S. state of Georgia has scheduled the execution of Lynd, a convicted murderer, on May 6, 2008 or soon afterward, in what will likely be the first use of lethal injection since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended an effective moratorium on capital punishment. REUTERS/Georgia Department of Corrections/Handout

By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA - Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a Georgia man who killed his girlfriend is likely to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions last September.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied William Earl Lynd's appeal for clemency, rejecting his lawyer's argument that forensic evidence at his 1990 trial was flawed and clearing the way for his execution, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
On Monday two other states — Texas and Mississippi — also scheduled executions that had been on hold.
Lynd, 53, has a request for a stay before the Georgia Supreme Court, but preparations were moving forward for his execution. He has already selected his final meal: two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crisp onions; two baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese; and a strawberry milkshake.
He would be the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates with a three-drug injection is constitutional. Roughly three dozen states, including Georgia, use a similar method.
Following the decision to review Kentucky's lethal injections, those states stopped executing inmates for seven months, the longest pause in 25 years. Texas conducted the last execution, putting Michael Richard to death on Sept. 25, 2007, the same day the Supreme Court agreed to consider the Kentucky case, brought by two prisoners who claimed the lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lynd was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 26, in south Georgia in 1988, after the two consumed Valium, marijuana and alcohol. Prosecutors said she suffered a slow, agonizing death, regaining consciousness twice after being shot in the head.
The medical examiner testified that Moore was still alive when Lynd stuffed her into the trunk of her car. Lynd confessed that when he heard her thumping around, he opened the trunk and fired the lethal shot.
The allegation that Lynd kidnapped Moore before she died was what made him eligible for the death penalty. But Lynd's lawyers argued the medical examiner who did Moore's autopsy was wrong to say she could have regained consciousness after the second shot.
A doctor hired by the defense found that Moore was already dead when she was placed in the trunk, which would make Lynd innocent of the kidnapping charge, his attorneys said. The original medical examiner now agrees it is unlikely Moore was still alive, according to defense attorney Tom Dunn's legal filing.
Lawyers say Lynd and Moore had a volatile relationship and were in a heated argument over a trip to Florida when he shot her.
"This crime was hot blooded and without premeditation," Dunn wrote in his application to the parole board. "Tragic — yes. Cold blooded — no."
Dunn also told the state parole board that the jury that sentenced Lynd to death never learned he had been sexually molested by neighbors at age 8, a possible mitigating factor.
After Lynd buried Moore's body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farm, authorities said he fled to Ohio, where he shot and killed another woman who had stopped along the side of the road to help him.
The five-member parole board rejected his plea Monday without comment.
Death penalty opponents plan vigils around Georgia Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, a Mexican-born Texas prisoner whose death sentence set off an international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House also received an execution date Monday.

Texas State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the Aug. 5 lethal injection for 33-year-old Jose Medellin for his participation in the gang rape and strangulation deaths of two teenage girls when they stumbled upon a gang initiation rite 15 years ago in Houston.
The Supreme Court in March refused to hear Medellin's appeal, saying President Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Texas to reopen his case and the cases of 50 other Mexican nationals condemned for murders in the U.S. Texas refused to comply.
Medellin is among 14 native Mexicans on death row in Texas. Mexico has no death penalty and sued the United States in the world court in 2003. Mexico and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the world court to fight for foreigners facing executions.
And in Mississippi on Monday, the state Supreme Court scheduled a May 21 execution for Earl Wesley Berry.
Attorney General Jim Hood had requested that Berry be executed Monday. However, the court set the date for later this month after rejecting arguments from Berry's lawyers that he should be spared because he is mentally disabled, and that the method of lethal injection is unconstitutional.
Berry, who turned 49 on Monday, was convicted of kidnapping Mary Bounds from the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Houston, Miss., on Nov. 29, 1987. He beat her viciously then dumped her body in the woods.
The U.S. Supreme Court had blocked Berry's last scheduled execution on Oct. 30, 2007 in order to consider the Kentucky case.
__ Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk in Houston and Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/...rgia_execution

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Posted by: CJIS

Get the popcorn ready.

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Posted by: kwflatbed

Ga. man executed, ending 7-month moratorium

By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Ga. - A Georgia man who killed his live-in girlfriend was executed, the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections.
William Earl Lynd was pronounced dead Tuesday at 7:51 p.m. EDT, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mallie McCord told The Associated Press. It came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected efforts to block it.
The roughly three dozen states around the country that use lethal injection held off on carrying out any executions for more than seven months while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of the three-drug cocktail that's used. It was the longest pause in U.S. executions in a quarter century.
The Supreme Court last month upheld the legality of lethal injections.
Lynd, 53, was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, three times in the face and head two decades ago. After he buried Moore's body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farm, authorities said Lynd fled to Ohio, where he shot and killed another woman who had stopped along the side of the road to help him.
Lynd never denied killing Moore, 26, two days before Christmas in 1988. But his lawyers had sought a last minute reprieve from the courts, arguing that new forensic evidence showed he could not have kidnapped her because she was already dead when he stuffed her in the trunk of her car.
Prosecutors allege that Moore was still alive when Lynd placed her in the trunk — despite two gunshot wounds to the head. They say Lynd confessed to authorities that he fired the final, lethal shot when he heard her "thumping around" in the trunk.
The kidnapping had been an essential "aggravating" circumstance that made Lynd eligible for the death penalty.
Lawyers say Lynd and Moore had a volatile relationship and were in a heated argument over a trip to Florida when he shot her. His attorney, Tom Dunn, argued that the shooting was not premeditated, and took place after the two had taken Valium, marijuana and alcohol. In the days leading up to Lynd's execution, Dunn asked several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to block it but was turned down each time.
Lynd's execution came about 30 minutes after its 7 p.m. EDT scheduled time as officials waited to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court would step in and halt it, and as they awaited the final go-ahead from the state attorney general.
The procedure began at 7:34 p.m. EDT with Lynd's heavily tattooed arms and neck strapped down to a gurney. He did not have any last remarks and declined a final prayer. As the chemicals began to flow into his arms, he blinked repeatedly, shuddered and yawned several moments into the procedure. He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later.
About three dozen people watched Lynd's execution, including the brother and sister-in-law of Lynd's girlfriend.
Death penalty opponents staged vigils around the state Tuesday night to protest the first of an expected wave of executions around the country. At the state Capitol in Atlanta, more than 40 people protested and unfurled a red, white and blue banner that said "Stop the Death Penalty."
About a dozen protesters were outside the state prison.
"I just feel a profound sense of sadness that our state has rushed to be the first in the country to resume executing people," said Laura Moye, of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Jeanne Zittrauer was among eight people who stood outside the city hall in Savannah, about 250 miles east of Atlanta, to protest Lynd's execution.
"It makes me ashamed that Georgia is the first one to do this, that we would jump right in there," the 65-year-old Zittrauer said. "I'm not saying he's guilty or innocent, but I don't believe any man deserves to be put to death."

Texas conducted the nation's last execution, putting Michael Richard to death on Sept. 25, 2007, the same day the Supreme Court agreed to consider a Kentucky case brought by two prisoners who claimed the lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
____ Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga. and Walter Putnam in Atlanta contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/...rgia_execution

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