Condemned inmate denied clemency

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency to convicted killer Mark Howard McClain, scheduled to die Tuesday night.

McClain, 42, would be the first inmate executed in Georgia in more than a year. He was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of a Richmond County Domino's Pizza store manager.

"I am disheartened by the Board's decision," said defense attorney Brian Kammer, "because we presented ample evidence that Mark McClain is not only a model prisoner who has acknowledged responsibility and shown deep regret for his crime, but also that his death sentence is starkly disproportionate to his crime -- a crime the facts of which prompt Georgia law enforcement authorities to seek the death penalty with extreme rarity, and juries to impose it even less frequently."

In 1995 Georgia juries convicted 55 people of committing a murder during an armed robbery. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in 16 of those cases, but McClain was the only one sentenced to die.

He has yet to exhaust all appeals. Earlier today Kammer filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Butts County, arguing that McClain's death sentence was unconstitutionally imposed in light of the punishments doled out to other defendants guilty of a similar crime.

Kammer has also sought a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court  until the high court decides a similar appeal from a condemned inmate in Alabama. If the  court rules in favor of the Alabama inmate, Kammer's appeal argues, then McClain should be granted similar relief.

Seeking money for his girlfriend, McClain approached a Domino's driver shortly before 2 a.m. on Nov. 20, 1994. McClain told the delivery man he wanted to buy a pizza, even though the store was closed. The driver asked store manager Kevin Scott Brown to make an exception.

McClain then produced a small revolver and forced his way into the store. The delivery man was able to escape but by the time paramedics arrived Brown was dead of a single gunshot wound to the chest. A little more than $100 was missing from the store's till.

McClain's death by lethal injection is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.