Condemned Georgia man pleads for clemency

ATLANTA (Map, News) - Lawyers for condemned death row inmate Samuel David Crowe launched a final bid Thursday to spare his life, hours before he was set to die by lethal injection.

Crowe's lawyer, Ann Fort, pleaded his case to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles Thursday morning. He is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson, 45 miles south of Atlanta.

If the execution takes place, Crowe will become the third inmate to die since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the most common method of lethal injection. Georgia's May 6 execution of William Earl Lynd ended a seven-month halt on executions across the country, and Mississippi executed an inmate Wednesday night.

His lawyers also have asked the Georgia Supreme Court for a stay of execution and have filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in case the Georgia justices deny his appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Crowe's last appeal in April.

Crowe was sentenced to die after pleading guilty to robbing and killing 39-year-old Joseph Pala in 1988 at the Douglas County lumber store where Crowe used to work. Prosecutors said Crowe was desperate for cash to pay overdue bills.

The medical examiner found that the store manager was shot, beaten with a crowbar, and struck with a can of paint that came open and spilled white paint on his face.

In a 25-page filing with the parole board, Fort said Crowe had stopped using cocaine that night and was in severe withdrawal. Crowe, now 48, has been rehabilitated, she said, and has constantly tried to atone for the brutal murder.

She has asked the board to commute Crowe's death sentence and provided a box of testimonials from his supporters, including friends, pastors, an ex-teacher and even a former corrections officer.

Jack Bedsole, a retired corrections officer at Crowe's prison, called him "a peacemaker" among the inmates in the prison.

"He was the only person I dealt with on death row in 16 years who I felt like if they released him that morning he would never get in any more trouble and he could make a contribution to society," Bedsole said in a letter.

Crowe is not allowed to attend the hearing but expressed his remorse in a letter.

"What I did to Joseph Pala is not something that I have ever been able to forget, or push back into the recesses of my mind," Crowe said.

Douglas County District Attorney David McDade said he still remembers the gruesome scene.

"He horribly, tragically, brutally murdered a man whose family has suffered to this day," McDade said. "That he feels remorse today doesn't diminish what he did to Mr. Pala with one iota."

Source: examiner.com

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