Commutation in Georgia

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted the death sentence of Samuel David Crowe, stopping tonight's scheduled execution.  LINK

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Thursday commuted the death sentence of admitted killer Samuel David Crowe to life without parole.

The decision from the five-member board was announced only about 2½ hours before Crowe was to be executed by lethal injection. It was only the third time since 1995 that the Pardons and Parole Board has commuted a death sentence.

The 47-year-old man would have been the second inmate to be put to death in Georgia in 16 days and the third in the country since a de facto moratorium on executions was lifted in April, when the U.S. Supreme Court approved lethal injection in a Kentucky case.

And:

In a 25-page filing with the parole board, Crowe's attorney, Ann Fort, said that the night of the killing, her client had recently stopped using cocaine and was in severe withdrawal. Crowe has been rehabilitated, she said, and has constantly tried to atone for the brutal murder.

She has asked the board to commute Crowe's death sentence and provided a box of testimonials from his supporters, including friends, pastors, an ex-teacher and even a former corrections officer.

Jack Bedsole, a retired corrections officer at Crowe's prison, called him "a peacemaker" among the inmates in the prison.

"He was the only person I dealt with on death row in 16 years who I felt like if they released him that morning he would never get in any more trouble and he could make a contribution to society," Bedsole said in a letter.

Crowe was not allowed to attend the hearing but expressed his remorse in a letter. "What I did to Joseph Pala is not something that I have ever been able to forget, or push back into the recesses of my mind," Crowe said.