[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA

[Rick Halperin]

May 4




GEORGIA----execution

Georgia executes killer of off-duty prison guard


Georgia has executed a man convicted of robbing and killing an off-duty prison 
guard 22 years ago.

Authorities say the death sentence of 40-year-old Robert Earl Butts Jr. was 
carried out at 9:58 p.m. Friday.

Butts and 41-year-old Marion Wilson Jr. were convicted and sentenced to death 
in the March 1996 slaying of Donovan Corey Parks.

Prosecutors say Butts and Wilson asked Parks for a ride outside a Walmart store 
in Milledgeville on March 28, 1996, and then ordered him out of the car and 
fatally shot him a short distance away.

Wilson's case is still pending.

Butts becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this year 
and the 72nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1983.

Butts becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1,475th overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

Only Texas (*550), Virginia (113), Oklahoma (112), Florida (96), and Missouri 
(88) have carried out more executions since the death penalty was re-legalized 
in the USA on July 2, 1976.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)