Alderman clemency bid to be heard today

The state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles will convene this morning at 9 o’clock to consider a plea for clemency for convicted killer Jack Alderman. Monday, a Fulton County judge ruled Alderman should get a stay of execution until an appeal was heard. Alderman was scheduled to die tonight at 7pm for the 1974 murder of his wife. The board of Pardons and Paroles will hear from Alderman’s family and friends, religious leaders and a psychologist. Alderman is the longest serving inmate on Georgia's death row.

State set for second execution in a month

Georgia is set to go through with its second execution in a month. Curtis Osborne is scheduled to die tonight for a double murder committed in 1990. On Monday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles ruled that Osborne should not be granted clemency. Osborne, who is black, has claimed he was sentenced to death because his defense attorney was racist. This scheduled execution comes less than a month after Georgia put William Earl Lynd to death.

Condemned man appeals to state board

Attorneys for a condemned Georgia man are seeking to avert his execution next week. They say a defense attorney for Jack Osborne, who is black, was allegedly racist and provided inadequate legal defense. Spaulding County District Attorney Scott Ballard called the claims “outlandish.” A state parole board will consider the charges today. Osborne is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 4^th for fatally shooting a couple in 1990.

Parole board commutes killer's death sentence

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has commuted the death sentence of convicted killer Samuel David Crowe, just hours before his scheduled execution.

Crowe will now serve life without parole for the 1988 killing of Joseph Pala, a Douglas County lumber store manager.

A parole board spokeswoman says the last time the board commuted a death row sentence was January 2004.

An explanation of the panel's decision, made Thursday afternoon, was not provided immediately, but a statement is planned.

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(The Associated Press)

Death row inmate to ask for hearing

Lawyers for convicted killer William Earl Lynd will ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles today to spare Lynd’s life. He is scheduled to be executed tomorrow night. Lynd has been in prison almost two decades, serving time for the killing of his girlfriend three days before Christmas in 1988. Lynd could become the first condemned prisoner in the country to die by lethal injection since September--that’s when the U.S . Supreme Court considered arguments that challenged lethal injection in a Kentucky case.