"Georgia Supreme Court chief urges lawmakers to fund new clerk for death penalty cases," is an AP report via the Republic.
The Georgia Supreme Court is asking state lawmakers to fund a new clerk who would only work capital cases.
Chief Justice Carol Hunstein on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve the request for about $80,000 to hire a new capital case docket clerk for those cases.
She said "I don't think anyone outside the judiciary understands how complicated and complex these cases are."
Georgia executed four people in 2011, including Troy Davis, whose claims of innocence attracted international attention.
There is also news of an execution date set for a volunteer, an inmate who has waived his appeals. "Ga. death row inmate refuses to file habeas appeal," is by AP writer Greg Bluestein. It's via the Rockdale Citizen.
Nicholas Cody Tate could delay his execution at the end of this month for years if he filed a new round of appeals. But his refusal to do so has made his death sentence for the murders of two people one of the fastest-moving in recent memory in Georgia.
In the glacial-paced world of death penalty law, Tate’s death sentence for the 2001 killings of a woman and her 3-year-old daughter moved through the appeals process quickly. That’s because he refused to challenge his conviction and sentence by filing a habeas appeal in state or federal court.
His current and former attorneys won’t comment on why Tate, who is 31, won’t let them file the appeal. But the transcript from a 2009 court hearing helps illuminate his thoughts on the process.
“You caught me red-handed,” he said during the hearing, when he waived his motion for a new trial. “None of my rights were violated ... I choose to waive any and all future appeals.”
A Paulding County judge last week cleared the way for his execution, and state officials on Tuesday scheduled the lethal injection for Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Death penalty opponents say Tate’s case highlights the problems with capital punishment.
“The appeals process exists as a safeguard to protect the integrity of the judicial process,” said Kathryn Hamoudah, who chairs Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. “Proceeding without is tantamount to allowing state assisted suicide.”
"Tate execution set for Jan. 31," is an AP brief, also via the Rockdale Citizen.
The Georgia Department of Corrections has set a Jan. 31 execution date for Nicholas Cody Tate, who killed a Paulding County woman and her daughter in 2001.
Tate is to be put to death by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
And:
Tate pleaded guilty to the murders in 2005 and waived a trial by jury. After a sentencing hearing, the trial judge sentenced Tate to death. Tate's case is highly unusual in that he has not challenged his conviction and sentence through a petition of habeas corpus in either state or federal court.
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