[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----GA.

[Rick Halperin]

May 6



GEORGIA----impending execution

High court rejects appeal of man on death row----William Earl Lynd is
scheduled to be executed Tuesday at 7 p.m.


The Georgia Supreme Court this afternoon rejected the appeal of William
Earl Lynd about 5 hours before he was scheduled to be executed for the
1988 murder of his live-in girlfriend.

The decision was unanimous. Lynd is scheduled to die at 7 p.m Lynd is to
be the 1st person to be executed in the United States since an unofficial
moratorium was placed on lethal injection eight months ago while the U.S.
Supreme Court decided on the constitutionality of the process.

The justices ruled lethal injection was constitutional last month.

Lynd's lawyers had argued in filings with the Georgia Supreme Court that
his death sentence was not valid because it was obtained with flawed
testimony that Ginger Moore was alive when he put her into a trunk, which
led to his conviction for kidnapping. The kidnapping, in South Georgia's
Berrien County, was one of the aggravating circumstances that made Moore's
murder a capital offense.

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant clemency Monday
to William Earl Lynd, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1988
murder of his live-in girlfriend in Berrien County.

Lynd would be the 1st inmate nationwide to be executed by lethal injection
since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision last month upholding the
constitutionality of the procedure in Kentucky. Executions had been
suspended nationwide since September, when the high court decided to
consider the issue of lethal injection.

Lynd's lawyers are now asking the Georgia Supreme Court to issue a stay of
execution. On Friday, the state Supreme Court asked lawyers to address
questions about evidence presented during Lynd's trial in February 1990.

According to court records, Lynd and the victim, Virginia "Ginger" Moore,
got into an argument and Lynd shot her in the face. Lynd then went outside
to smoke a cigarette. Moore regained consciousness, followed him outside
and Lynd shot her a second time, according to testimony.

Lynd then put Moore in the trunk of his car and drove away. After hearing
a thumping sound in the trunk, Lynd got out, opened the trunk and shot
Moore a third time, killing her, according to testimony. Lynd buried
Moore's body in a shallow grave in Tift County and drove to Ohio, where he
shot and killed another woman, using the same gun he used to kill Moore.
He was arrested Dec. 31, 1988, and returned to Georgia.

Lynd's appellate lawyers now contend that Lynd's conviction in Berrien
County was secured by flawed testimony from a medical examiner who
conducted Moore's autopsy.

Recent court filings argue that Moore could not have been alive by the
time Lynd put her in the trunk. If this is true, one of the aggravating
circumstances found by the jury to support Lynd's death sentence is no
longer valid, the filings say. The jury found that Lynd committed
kidnapping with bodily injury by putting Moore into his trunk against her
will and then driving her away. Wayne Tillman, the medical examiner, gave
testimony that "has no basis in medical evidence," Lynd's lawyers. Tom
Dunn and Brian Kammer, said in a recent statement. "The state's
presentation of false, unreliable and misleading evidence resulted in Mr.
Lynd's wrongful conviction for aggravated murder and kidnapping and a
sentence of death."

Lynd is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Jackson. He has
already requested his last meal.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 40 men
have been executed in Georgia and Lynd would be the 18th put to death by
lethal injection. There are now 109 men and 1 woman on Georgia's death
row.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)