Stay lifted in Georgia execution
Eighteen hours after stopping the scheduled execution of Robert Earl Butts Jr., the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Thursday lifted its own stay.
He is now set to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Friday, state Department of Corrections officials said.
In an unusual move, the parole board issued a 90-day stay Wednesday evening, saying it needed time to consider new information presented in a meeting with Butts' lawyers. Butts, 40, had been set to die at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“Knowing the gravity of its decisions, the board extended deliberations in order to consider supplemental information submitted during the meeting that members had not previously reviewed,” said spokesman Steve Hayes.
“Completing that process, the Board voted to deny clemency.”
Butts was convicted of murdering Donovan Corey Parks, an off-duty corrections officer, in 1996. Butts, then 18, and Marion “Murdock” Wilson were sentenced to died in Baldwin County for shooting Parks in the back of the head with a sawed-off shotgun and then taking his 1992 Acura with hopes of selling it for parts.
