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Thread: Virgil Delano Presnell, Jr. - Georgia Death Row

  1. #91
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    this execution is still on hold as of 11 hours ago.

  2. #92
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Without reading the legal pleadings, it seems plausible that the state made an enforceable agreement with Presnell's lawyers to forego executions in a different case and didn't seek to clarify or get out of the agreement before seeking Presnell's execution.

  3. #93
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    This article gives more specifics about the injunction. I bolded the grounds.
    __________________________________________________ ______________________________________________

    Execution for Georgia man who killed girl temporarily stayed
    AP via the NY Post, May 17

    ATLANTA — A judge on Monday temporarily delayed the execution of a Georgia man who was scheduled to die Tuesday for killing an 8-year-old girl 46 years ago.

    Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., 68, killed the girl and raped her 10-year-old friend after abducting them as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, on May 4, 1976. He was scheduled to die by injection of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

    Ruling from the bench at the end of a hearing that lasted more than eight hours Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams issued an order temporarily prohibiting the state from proceeding with the execution Tuesday. She was ruling in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Presnell’s lawyers that alleged that by setting an execution date the state violated an agreement that effectively put executions on hold during the coronavirus pandemic and established conditions under which they could resume.

    Lawyers for the state indicated they would appeal the judge’s ruling so the execution could proceed as planned.

    Earlier Monday, the State Board Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence, had declined to halt Presnell’s execution.

    The lawsuit filed on behalf of the Federal Defender Program, which represents Presnell, alleges the agreement said that, with one named exception, executions wouldn’t resume until six months after three conditions had been met: the expiration of the state’s COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID vaccine “to all members of the public.”

    The judicial emergency ended in June, but prisons are still using a modified visitation policy and children under 5 still can’t access the vaccine, Mike Caplan, a lawyer representing the Federal Defender Program, argued in court.

    Jonathan Loegel, a lawyer for the state, argued that the agreement wasn’t a binding contract and also said the state “substantially complied” with its terms. He said that visitation has “resumed in our new normal” and that the vaccine has been widely available for a year.


    The agreement said that once the conditions were met, the state intended to seek an execution date for Billy Raulerson, who was sentenced to death for the May 1993 killings of three people in south Georgia, and that Raulerson’s lawyers would be given at least three months notice after the conditions were met, the lawsuit says. The attorney general’s office said it wouldn’t seek the execution of anyone else covered by the agreement until at least six months after the conditions were met, the lawsuit says.

    In late April, the attorney general’s office informed Raulerson’s attorney that the state intended to schedule Raulerson’s execution for May 17, the lawsuit says. After Raulerson’s attorney reminded a state attorney that she had agreed not to schedule the execution during his previously scheduled vacation, the state attorney told him Raulerson’s execution wouldn’t be scheduled until August at the earliest.

    A few days later, on April 25, the state attorney notified Presnell’s attorney, Monet Brewerton-Palmer, that the state intended to seek an execution warrant for him, the lawsuit says. The warrant was issued April 27.

    Contrary to the agreement, the attorney general gave Brewerton-Palmer just two days of notice that they intended to set his execution date, the lawsuit says. That left her with insufficient time to prepare for his clemency hearing Monday, the lawsuit says.

    The clemency hearing lasted only an hour Monday morning and Brewerton-Palmer did not call any witnesses or experts to testify or submit the dozens of witnesses she would otherwise have provided, Caplan said.

    “This is often the best hope that a death sentence prisoner has of not being executed,” Caplan said. “Her case this morning for clemency was completely gutted.”

    In a clemency application submitted to the parole board, Brewerton-Palmer had argued that he is “profoundly brain damaged” and didn’t understand the harm he was causing the two girls. But because of COVID restrictions on visitation and travel and an expert witness who recently suffered a heart problem, she wasn’t able to offer testimony to support that.

    Brewerton-Palmer had been working on Presnell’s case, but it “was not on her radar as an emergency” because of the agreement, Caplan argued. He urged the judge to delay the execution to give Brewerton-Palmer time to complete her investigation and prepare properly for a new clemency hearing.

    It is in the public’s interest to ensure that promises made by the state are kept and to avoid any perception that Presnell would be executed prematurely when his lawyer was unprepared to present a clemency case, Caplan said.

    Loegel argued that the state has an interest in ensuring the prompt and timely administration of justice and delaying the execution would prevent that. Brewerton-Palmer has known since last fall that Presnell had exhausted his appeals and therefore had sufficient time to prepare, he argued.

    Williams said it was clear to her that the emailed agreement was meant to be binding on the parties. The Federal Defender Program was prevented by COVID-related causes from preparing as it would have and relied on the agreement, she said.

    It’s clear that Presnell, whom she allowed to intervene in the suit, stood to suffer irreparable harm if the execution wasn’t delayed, the judge said: “We can’t come back from death.”

    Source
    "Sorry for the delay, I got caught in traffic." — Rodney Scott Berget, South Dakota, October 29, 2018 — final words.

  4. #94
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    If the information in that article is correct, I think that's an enforceable agreement.

  5. #95
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Execution was "postponed."

    Article adds nothing new besides that.

    https://apnews.com/article/covid-hea...1780f8968a0578
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #96
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
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    Remember all Georgia death warrants have a 7 day time window. I wouldn't be surprised if the state has already submitted their appeal to this ruling.

  7. #97
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    This execution could be carried out 7pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday. There is alot of time to get this done within the courts!
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  8. #98
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    so presnell should be executed on wednesday, again on thursday, then on friday, and one more time on monday. now that is a heck of a deterrent!

  9. #99
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    The state submitted its appeal a while back but no ruling yet. This could go the way Robert Butts did if the GA Supreme Court overturns the stay. It hardly needs to be said that the state was never going to get a fair shake with the judge that granted the stay, so we will see.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #100
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
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    When I was employed we didn't have these problems. People don't take their job seriously. I've always put myself in the victims shoes. So if it were your family, you would want satisfaction immediately.

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