Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Execution halted for condemned Paulding County killer." It's by Bill Rankin.
After refusing for years to challenge his execution, condemned killer Nicholas Cody Tate on Tuesday changed his mind just hours before he was to be put to death.
And:
After the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in Tate's automatic direct appeal, which is required in all capital cases, Tate said he wished to file no further appeal, which are routine in most all death-penalty cases and, on occasion, result in new trials.
During one hearing, Tate told a judge he had been caught "red handed" and that none of his rights had been violated. "I choose to waive any and all future appeals," Tate said.
Last week, as the execution neared, Tate's brother sought to file an appeal on Tate's behalf. But that was abandoned after psychiatrists examined Tate and found he was competent to decide on his own to forgo his final appeals.
"Judge Postpones Execution," is the AP report, via Georgia Public Broadcasting.
A judge halted the execution of a Georgia man less than an hour before he was set to die for the 2001 murders of a woman and her 3-year-old daughter, acting after the inmate signaled he would file a new round of appeals.
Butts County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson postponed Nicholas Cody Tate's execution until further notice about 45 minutes before Tate was scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson on Tuesday evening for the murders of Chrissie Williams and her daughter Katelyn. It's unclear how long his execution would be delayed, but it often takes this type of appeal years to work through the court system.
Reuters posts, "Judge halts Georgia execution of man who killed woman, child," by David Beasley.
Tate, who had been scheduled to die on his birthday, declined a special last meal. He would have been the 35th person Georgia has executed by lethal injection.
Tate's execution would also have been the third in the United States this year, following Rodrigo Hernandez in Texas and Gary Welch in Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Last year, 43 people were executed.
Thirty-four U.S. states currently have the death penalty, the center said.
Earlier coverage of the Tate case begins at the link. Related posts are in the volunteer index.
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