State executioners back in bidness

Georgia is first past the post

William Earl Lynd, 53, was put to death at Jackson state prison in Georgia late on Tuesday after a final meal of two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crispy onions, baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese, and a large strawberry milkshake.

He eats ate better than I do.

Here is an excerpt from William Earl Lynd's final (rejected) reply brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a stay of execution. Bear in mind that a sentence of death requires a killing plus some aggravating factor(s), as defined by State statute.

[The Georgia Supreme Court's] flawed decision may now allow a man to be executed based on a fake doctor's manifestly and undisputedly false and misleading testimony that a woman shot in the brain could have revived and struggled painfully before being dealt a final, cold-blooded shot to the head by Mr. Lynd.

Had a competent medical professional informed the jury that in fact, Ms. Moore immediately died after being shot in the brain during her fight with Mr. Lynd, there would have been no evidence to support the kidnapping aggravator or the prosecutor's inflammatory argument that Ms. Moore died a lingering, torturous death, which came when a cold, calculating William Lynd fired the final, fatal shot.

It simply could not have happened that way. Because the jury heard otherwise, Mr. Lynd's death sentence cannot be said, by any stretch of distorted moral or legal logic, to be fair, accurate and reliable. Had Mr. Lynd been subject only to the remaining statutory aggravator in this case — aggravated battery — it is overwhelmingly likely that he would not have been sentenced to death.

In Georgia, only one other person has ever had a death sentence affirmed based solely on the aggravated battery aggravator, and that involved the murder of a child.

h/t SCOTUSblog

Earlier: Git-R-Done.