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GEORGIA (USA): ROBERT WAYNE HOLSEY EXECUTED
December 9, 2014: Robert Wayne Holsey, 49, black, was executed.
That decision came after the Supreme Court of Georgia refused to block the execution in a 5-to-2 ruling Tuesday even though Holsey's attorney argued that the state's strict standards for determining intellectual disability violated his constitutional rights.
Holsey killed a deputy sheriff, William Robinson, in Baldwin County after robbing a convenience store in 1995, died at 10:51 p.m., according to state officials. Mr. Holsey's case received wide attention in part because his chief lawyer at his 1997 trial later admitted drinking vodka heavily during the trial, was later disbarred and given a 10-year sentence for stealing client funds.
Mr. Holsey had an I.Q. of around 70, his lawyers said, on the borderline of a disability that could have made his execution illegal. But state officials maintained that Mr. Holsey had been properly represented and was not severely disabled, and the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could stand. At issue in the new appeal to the state court on Tuesday was Georgia's requirement that intellectual disability be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." The rule is stiffer than that in any other state and makes it nearly impossible, legal experts said, to declare as disabled a person who is near the borderline and only partly able to manage daily life. Many legal experts predict that the United States Supreme Court will at some point accept a case resembling Mr. Holsey's and declare the state's tough standard unconstitutional.
Holsey becomes the 2nd inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 55th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Holsey becomes the 34th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1393rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (Sources: WMAZ news, New York Times & Rick Halperin, 09/12/2014)
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