Georgia Executes First Inmate In 7 Months
Death Penalty Had Effectively Been On Hold While Supreme Court Ruled On Constitutionality Of Lethal Injections
-
Photo
This undated prison photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections shows convicted murderer William Earl Lynd. (AP)
-
Play CBS Video
Video
Court Restores Death Penalty
The Supreme Court ruled that death by lethal injection does not qualify as torture, ending a seven-month moratorium on executions in 10 states. Wyatt Andrews reports.
-
Video
Court Upholds Lethal Injection
"Only On The Web": Reporting outside the Supreme Court, CBS News' Wyatt Andrews breaks down the justices' decision to uphold Kentucky's use of lethal injection executions.
-
Interactive
Capital Punishment
Learn about the death penalty in the United States. Check out statistics, history, famous trials and more.
-
Interactive
The Supreme Court
History, traditions and key cases, plus what it takes to get on the bench.
Convicted killer William Earl Lynd was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m., a state prisons official says.
Lynd, 53, was convicted of kidnapping and shooting to death his 26-year-old girlfriend two days before Christmas in 1988.
The Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay of execution for Lynd, Tuesday, clearing the way for the landmark execution.
Lynd became the first death row inmate executed since the Supreme Court upheld the current lethal injection method last month, ending a de facto moratorium on capital punishment in the United States. The last execution took place on Sept. 25.
The Supreme Court ruled last month in a Kentucky case that the state's method of executing inmates with a three-drug cocktail did not violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Roughly three dozen states, including Georgia, use a similar method.
Fourteen other executions are scheduled in the next six months across America. But as CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, more states are reconsidering capital punishment, and reaching very different conclusions.
Wrongful convictions are one reason why lawmakers in five states are seriously debating repealing capital punishment. But five other states have moved in a very different direction -- passing laws that expanded death row to execute people convicted of a crime other than murder.
Lynd 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.
Death penalty opponents planned vigils around Georgia on Tuesday.
"In light of the many well-documented problems with our death penalty system, it is disturbing that Georgia is rushing to lead the country in resuming the death penalty machinery," said Laura Moye, chairwoman of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Lynd, now 53, 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 five-member Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected Lynd's clemency appeal without comment.
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 the Kentucky case, brought by two prisoners who claimed the lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
On Monday, a Texas judge set an Aug. 5 lethal injection date for Jose Medellin, 33, 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 death sentence for the Mexican-born Medellin set off an international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House after the high court in March refused to hear his 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.
In Mississippi, the state Supreme Court scheduled a May 21 execution for Earl Wesley Berry, convicted of kidnapping Mary Bounds from the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Houston on Nov. 29, 1987. He beat her viciously then dumped her body in the woods.
Attorney General Jim Hood had requested that Berry be executed Monday, his 49th birthday. 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.
The U.S. Supreme Court had blocked Berry's last scheduled execution on Oct. 30, 2007, to consider the Kentucky case.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 133 CommentsHas a little Christian brain
Vote for him you''ll get the same
The same the same the same the same
Don''t get me wrong I support the death penalty (especially, any violent act on children) maybe we should give them a second trial if given the death penalty or only with undeniable scientific proof rather than the "eyewitness", "beyond a reasonable doubt" proof.
people on death row don''t have internet access, they can''t read what your trying to say to them.
Homicide.
Posted by navyjimfl at 12:01 PM : May 06, 2008
And to the Hundreds that were found to have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to Death ???
Why should we (the people) use our tax money to keep the scum bags alive? Why not use the money which would be used to keep them alive for a better purpose, such as improvement of schools, teachers, equipment, supplies? I would feel the same way if it were a member of my own family on death row and DNA evidence proved that family member''s involvement in a first degree murder.
Yup, that''s me, depraved. I most certainly do advocate ridding the world of vicious killers who have no remorse and would do it again if given an ounce of a chance. The reason they (the killers) are afraid to die themselves is because they know they will have to face an eternity in the depths of hell. No matter how long they put off facing their final judgement here, they will still face an eternity in the depths of hell.
Yes, the rest of world is so refined and civilized. I''m thinking, of course, of the middle Eastern terrorists, Somalia, most African countries, Haitti, Asia, and all the countries, like Cambodia, who have lined up millions of innocent people and slaughtered them. Golly, I''m so glad I''m an American, I am free to move to any one of those countries any time I feel like it.
Posted by minnick8 at 12:38 PM : May 06, 2008
It''s because a ''woman''s right to choose'' trumps society''s right to have punsihment fit the crime.
Liberalism is a mental disorder and is beyond most people''s rational thought processes.
Oh, I love that thought; thank you for sharing.
Posted by minnick8
Silly little religious brain.
go to www.iqtest.com and try to score above 130
Quite right, good idea; quite right, good idea, quite right, good idea. Quote from the movie, Mary Poppins.
I dont hate you, btw.
Silly little religious brain. Fibbanoci
While I have no empiricle evidence that there is a hell; you have none that there isn''t.
Blow that out your pipe.
Blow that out your pipe.
Posted by minnick8
What does that put us at 50/50? You have no proof that the tooth fairy doesnt exist. One time when I was 9 I put a tooth under my pillow in an envelope and the next morning I had a dollar, explain that.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- next
See all 133 Comments