Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a condemned killer who shot his live-in girlfriend in Georgia likely is to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions last September, reports the Associated Press. 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. today.
Lynd, 53, has a request for a stay before the Georgia Supreme Court, but plans for his execution were moving forward. He already has selected his final meal: burgers and baked potatoes. 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. On Monday two other states – Texas and Mississippi – also scheduled executions that had been on hold. Lynd was sentenced to die for kidnapping and killing his live-in girlfriend, Virginia “Ginger” Moore, 26, in 1988, after the two ingested Valium, marijuana and alcohol.
Link: http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/050608/news_2008050600375.shtml