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Georgia Killer Up First As Executions Resume

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The Associated Press

Published: May 6, 2008

ATLANTA - Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a condemned killer who shot his live-in girlfriend is likely to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions in September.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied William Earl Lynd's appeal for clemency, rejecting his lawyer's argument that forensic evidence at his 1990 trial was flawed and clearing the way for his execution, scheduled for 7 p.m. today.

Lynd, 53, has a request for a stay before the Georgia Supreme Court, but preparations were moving forward for his execution. He has 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.

He would be the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates with a three-drug injection is constitutional. Roughly three dozen states, including Georgia, use a similar method.

On Monday two other states - Texas and Mississippi - also scheduled executions that had been on hold.

After the court decided to review Kentucky's lethal injections, states stopped executing inmates for seven months, the longest pause in 25 years. Texas conducted the last execution, putting Michael Richard to death Sept. 25, 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.
Lynd was sentenced to die for kidnapping and killing his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 26, in south Georgia in 1988, after the two consumed Valium, marijuana and alcohol. Prosecutors said Moore suffered a slow, agonizing death, regaining consciousness twice after being shot in the head.

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