ATLANTA — The state parole board has delayed making a decision in a clemency hearing for a Georgia inmate set to be executed for the slaying of an off-duty prison guard.
Marion Wilson Jr. is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday.
Wilson and Robert Earl Butts Jr. were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the 1996 slaying of Donovan Corey Parks.
Prosecutors say Wilson and Butts killed Parks and stole his car after asking him for a ride at a Walmart.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles says a decision regarding clemency would be issued before Thursday’s scheduled execution.
The parole board is Georgia’s only authority that can commute a death sentence.
Wilson would be the second prisoner executed by Georgia this year.
JUNE 19 Update
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected a request for clemency from Marion Wilson, Jr. In a statement, the Board reviewed all evidence in the case against Marion, as well as possible mitigating evidence, before rejecting clemency. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is the only authority in the state that can grant clemency.
Source: The Associated Press, Staff, June 19, 2019
Georgia group says 'merciful and restorative alternatives' can replace death penalty
MACON, Ga. -- Marion Wilson, Jr. and Robert Earl Butts, Jr. were both sentenced to death in the killing of an off-duty prison guard outside of a Milledgeville Walmart in 1996. Over 20 years later, some say Wilson shouldn't be facing the death penalty.
Butts was executed last year, and Wilson is scheduled to be executed Thursday, but a new petition by his lawyers is aiming to drop his death sentence.
The 28-page petition says there's no credible evidence that Wilson killed Donovan Corey Parks himself, that the prosecution exaggerated his juvenile record to warrant the death penalty, and that his chaotic youth warrants a life sentence instead.
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles said a decision on Wilson's clemency hearing wouldn't be made Wednesday but on Thursday before his scheduled execution.
The Board could turn his sentence to life with or without parole, deny clemency, or issue a stay of up to 90 days.
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty have been working to end the death penalty for over 20 years. They sent WGXA this statement regarding Wilson's scheduled execution:
"We are working towards a world in which we don’t discard people based on their conviction, but where there are merciful and restorative alternatives to give people the resources they need when harm is caused. We plan over 10 vigils around the state, including a vigil at Macon City Hall at 6:30 p.m. the night of scheduled executions to preserve and uplift the humanity of those the state seeks to kill.
"This case fits the profile that clemency might be granted. In fact there was no evidence at trial that Marion Wilson actually shot anybody. The evidence suggested the co-defendant, Mr. Butts, that was executed a year ago was the killer," Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said.
Twenty one states have abolished the death penalty, and Dunham said more than 12 others have introduced legislation in 2019 to end capital punishment in their states.
"We have seen gradually, one by one, states moving away from the death penalty," said Dunham.
The last person to be sentenced to death in Georgia was Tiffany Moss.
"Tiffany Moss, who was a brain-damaged defendant, who was committed by the court to represent herself, and she presented no defense," said Dunham.
The death penalty is meant to reduce murders and protect police officers, but the statistics prove otherwise, he adds.
"Over the course of this 31-year period, murder rates were higher in states that have the death penalty, compared to states that don't, and police officers were murdered at higher rate," said Dunham.
He adds that death penalty cases also cost taxpayers more than cases that don't sentence offenders to the death penalty.
"A death penalty on average cost $1 million more than a normal case," said Dunham.
Source:
wgxa.tv, Staff, June 20, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
