Almost 20 years after murdering his ex-girlfriend, William Earl Lynd last night became the first person in the U.S. to die by lethal injection since an unofficial moratorium was placed on executions while the Supreme Court decided the constitutionality of the procedure, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. He was the 41st man Georgia has executed since 1983, the 19th by lethal injection.
Lynd’s execution is expected to be followed soon by several in Georgia and other states. There is one scheduled in Mississippi for May 21 and in Virginia for May 27, and more planned throughout the summer in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, and Oklahoma.”It’s going to crank up again,” said Fordam Law Prof. Deborah Denno. As Lynd was being executed, a dozen death penalty opponents stood in quiet protest about a mile from the prison. Two women waited in support of his execution and to show support for the victim’s family.
Link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/05/05/lynd_0506.html