Georgia executed a convicted murderer by lethal injection, despite an appeal by former US President Jimmy Carter that authorities commute the sentence.
Curtis Osborne was sentenced to death for the murder of a couple in Spalding County, central Georgia, in 1991, and died at 9:05 pm (0105 GMT) at a state prison in Jackson, said prisons spokeswoman Mallie McCord.
His death was due to have taken place at 7 pm (1100 GMT) but was delayed because of a final, unsuccessful appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The execution was the second in the state since the high court ended an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April and it followed executions in Virginia and Mississippi.
That moratorium had been in effect since last September when the court agreed to decide an appeal from two Kentucky death row inmates who argued the commonly used lethal injection method inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering.
After the Supreme Court's April ruling rejecting a challenge to the lethal three-drug cocktail, Georgia became the first to execute an inmate on May 6, followed by Mississippi on May 21.
The Death Penalty Information Center had argued that Osborne's defense lawyer at trial failed to conduct a basic investigation that could have spared Osborne's life by exposing a family history of mental illness.
"The attorney (now dead) repeatedly referred to Osborne with a racial epithet, saying, 'That little ... (epithet) deserves the chair,'" the centre said on its website. It said Carter, the former president who lives in Georgia, had argued in a public statement for the commutation of Osborne's sentence.
"Law enforcement officials and religious leaders who have come to know Curtis Osborne have noted his complete remorse for the crime and the dramatic changes in his life while on death row," it said.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which can grant clemency, heard arguments last week about the behaviour of Osborne's original lawyer and rejected them, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Georgia has executed 42 men since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, and Osborne, born in 1970, was the 19th to die by lethal injection. He declined a last meal.
Source: Reuters
Curtis Osborne was sentenced to death for the murder of a couple in Spalding County, central Georgia, in 1991, and died at 9:05 pm (0105 GMT) at a state prison in Jackson, said prisons spokeswoman Mallie McCord.
His death was due to have taken place at 7 pm (1100 GMT) but was delayed because of a final, unsuccessful appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The execution was the second in the state since the high court ended an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April and it followed executions in Virginia and Mississippi.
That moratorium had been in effect since last September when the court agreed to decide an appeal from two Kentucky death row inmates who argued the commonly used lethal injection method inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering.
After the Supreme Court's April ruling rejecting a challenge to the lethal three-drug cocktail, Georgia became the first to execute an inmate on May 6, followed by Mississippi on May 21.
The Death Penalty Information Center had argued that Osborne's defense lawyer at trial failed to conduct a basic investigation that could have spared Osborne's life by exposing a family history of mental illness.
"The attorney (now dead) repeatedly referred to Osborne with a racial epithet, saying, 'That little ... (epithet) deserves the chair,'" the centre said on its website. It said Carter, the former president who lives in Georgia, had argued in a public statement for the commutation of Osborne's sentence.
"Law enforcement officials and religious leaders who have come to know Curtis Osborne have noted his complete remorse for the crime and the dramatic changes in his life while on death row," it said.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which can grant clemency, heard arguments last week about the behaviour of Osborne's original lawyer and rejected them, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Georgia has executed 42 men since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, and Osborne, born in 1970, was the 19th to die by lethal injection. He declined a last meal.
Source: Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment