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Thread: John Wayne Conner - Georgia Execution - July 14, 2016

  1. #11
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Clemency hearing set for Georgia death row inmate

    ATLANTA — Representatives seeking clemency for death row inmate John Wayne Conner are to meet with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the day before Conner is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

    Conner received the death sentence, set for 7 p.m. July 14, for the January 1982 murder of James T. White in Telfair County. A jury found Conner guilty of malice murder, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft that July, sentencing him to death. In May 1983, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions for malice murder and motor vehicle theft and his death sentence, but reversed his armed robbery conviction.

    The U.S. Supreme Court denied Conner’s appeal on Feb. 29.

    The Parole Board, which has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency and commute or reduce a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole, only considers commutation of a death-sentenced inmate after all judicial avenues of relief appear to have been exhausted.

    The meeting is expected to be closed, as authorized by Georgia law, and no public comment will be taken at the meeting nor any other business conducted.

    http://www.albanyherald.com/news/loc...3d77259be.html
    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

  2. #12
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
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    Just going through the motions. This is a done deal. I think Georgia will surpass Texas this year conducting executions.

  3. #13
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Honestly I'm worried he might get clemency because he was intoxicated at the time of the murder
    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

  4. #14
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Killer’s last meal; fried fish, hush puppies, deluxe hamburgers

    Condemned murderer John Wayne Conner has requested a high-calorie meal before his execution scheduled for next week.

    According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, the 60-year-old man has asked for 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hush puppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and a sliced raw onion.

    If he is put to death as scheduled next Thursday at 7 p.m., Conner will be the sixth person Georgia has executed this year, a record number in the 40 years since capital punishment was reinstated.

    Conner’s lawyers will plead with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday to stop his execution for the 1982 murder of a drinking buddy. After that, the Telfair County district attorney will ask the Board to allow the lethal injection to go forward.

    Conner murdered J.T. White after the two men and Conner’s girlfriend after a party in Eastman on Jan. 9, 1982.

    At Conner’s house after the gather, the three were not ready to call it a night.

    But Conner, then 25, and White, 29, needed more bourbon, so they walked to a neighbor’s house to ask for a ride to the liquor store.

    The neighbor refused and they headed back to Conner’s house.

    On the way, White “made a statement about he would like to go to bed with my girlfriend and so I got mad and we got into a fight and fought all the way over to the oak tree and I hit him with a quart bottle,” Conner told investigators according to court records.

    White ran and Conner chased him into a roadside ditch.

    “He was swinging, trying to get up, or swinging at me to try to hit me,” Conner told detectives. “There was a stick right there … and I grabbed it and went to beating him with it.”

    Conner, leaving White, went home.

    He woke Bates and told her they had to leave town because he may have killed White. But he also needed to make sure, so they drove back to the place where they had fought.

    Bates told investigators Conner walked into the woods and moments later she heard a thud. Conner returned to the car, telling her White was dead. “Let’s go,” he said.

    Conner and Bates were picked up the next day in Butts County, where Georgia’s Death Row is located.

    Conner’s scheduled lethal injection comes as the pace of executions in Georgia is increasing. Yet, death sentences are being rendered less often in Georgia.

    At this time, Conner is the only Death Row inmate who has exhausted his appeals, though several others are nearing the end of legal recourse.

    The last time Georgia carried out an execution was on April 27, when Daniel Anthony Lucas died by lethal injection 18 years and four days after he murdered Steven Moss and his two children in their Jones County home.

    This year Georgia has also executed Joshua Bishop, Kenneth Fults, Travis Hittson and Brandon Astor Jones.
    The only other times Georgia has put to death as many as five people in a year was in 2015 and in 1987.

    http://m.ajc.com/news/news/local/kil...eluxe-h/nrtSR/
    Last edited by Aaron; 07-07-2016 at 05:40 PM.
    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

  5. #15
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
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    He requested that super meal so he can crap like crazy when he's executed. And the onion is for his breath so his last breath won't be a good one. I don't think Lawler will order a last meal nor Marion Wilson.

  6. #16
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Lawyers describe violent childhood of man set to die Thursday

    The jury that decided decades ago that John Wayne Conner should die knew nothing of the frightening path he traveled as a child — a path that led him to become a killer in his 20s, his lawyers say.

    Conner, who has been on Death Row for 34 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday. If he is put to death, the 60-year-old man will be the sixth person Georgia has executed this year, more than any other in year since the current death penalty law was adopted 40 years ago.

    On Wednesday, Conner’s lawyers will meet with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to make a case for commuting his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Later in the day, the Telfair County prosecutor will present his argument for carrying out the execution as scheduled.

    If the jurors at his trial had known of Conner’s horrific childhood, the lawyers wrote in a clemency petition filed with the parole board, they might have shown mercy when they decided his fate for the 1982 murder of J.T. White.

    “A child’s sense of normalcy is defined not by the outside world’s social norms, but rather by his immediate family and home life,” the clemency petition said. “For young John Wayne Conner, normalcy included extraordinary familial violence that frequently involved knives and guns; regular drug and alcohol abuse; and brutal physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

    Those circumstances, the clemency petition said, led Conner “into the pattern modeled by those in his family.”

    The lawyers wrote that they were not recounting the details of Conner’s life to excuse the murder of White but as an explanation of how Conner came to be a killer.

    Conner, then 25, and White, 29, had spent the evening of Jan. 9, 1982, at a party, and wanted to keep drinking once they returned to Conner’s house in Milan. The two men walked to a neighbor’s house in search of a ride to the liquor store, but the neighbor refused. They were walking back to Conner’s house when the pair got into a fight; White said he wanted to have sex with Conner’s girlfriend, Beverly Bates. Conner beat White with a quart bottle and an oak tree branch.

    Leaving White in a ditch, Conner went directly home and told Bates they needed to leave town. On their way out of town, the couple stopped at the ditch so Conner could be sure White was dead.

    Bates told investigators Conner walked into the woods and moments later she heard a thud. Conner then told him he was sure.

    Conner and Bates were arrested the next day.

    The attorneys wrote in the petition that Conner’s abusive father had taught him to be violent, but that information was not presented at trial nor was it included in his appeals that followed.

    “Imagine a man who evokes fear and repugnance from an entire community,” the petition said.

    The petition said Carroll Conner slit a man’s throat after the man brushed against the arm of Conner’s pregnant wife. They also said that Carroll Conner, while serving overseas during World War II, beheaded a man in a movie theater for sitting in the seat between him and his brother. The petition said Conner’s father stabbed his brother and father-in-law, sexually assaulted his daughters and cut up his wife “like a jigsaw puzzle.”

    Conner, called “Shorty” by his family, was routinely beaten and mocked for his “limited intellectual functioning,” the petition said. And sometimes Conner and his siblings slept in the woods to avoid their father, his lawyers wrote, citing accounts by some of Conner’s brothers and sisters. They were so poor that for many of his early years, the family home did not have indoor plumbing.

    The petition said Conner dealt with his violent upbringing by using drugs and alcohol, and tried to kill himself with an overdose and also by hanging.

    Conner’s defense attorney failed him as well, the lawyers wrote.

    “Mr. Conner was represented at trial by a young appointed attorney, who was wholly inexperienced in capital defense and neglected to investigate Mr. Conner’s mental health, cognitive functioning or violent and traumatic family background,” according to the petition.

    The lawyer put on no defense and did not call witnesses during the sentencing phase of the trial.

    That information also was not included in appeals until now, the petition said.

    The petition notes that prison had made Conner a better man, that he has found religion and has taken up painting; they attached a copy of his artwork to the petition.

    “John Wayne Conner is a testament to the rehabilitative process,” his lawyers wrote. “Despite being on Death Row for the last 34 years without hope for release, Mr. Conner has transformed himself from a violent young man with severe substance abuse problems into a peaceful and productive member of the prison community.”

    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local...et-to-d/nrxR4/
    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

  7. #17
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    Panel to hold clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate

    ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to hold a clemency hearing for an inmate scheduled to be executed later this week.

    Representatives for 60-year-old John Wayne Conner will have an opportunity Wednesday morning to appear before the board to argue on his behalf. Conner is set to be executed Thursday at the state prison in Jackson by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.

    Conner was convicted of beating his friend J.T. White to death in January 1982 during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use.

    The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia.

    In a clemency application, Conner's attorneys asked the board to consider his extremely violent childhood, as well as evidence they say proves he's intellectually disabled.

    http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/p...7e7e42baa.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #18
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Alfred's Avatar
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    Condemned triple killer’s lawyer says he’s a ‘peacemaker’

    As an 11-year-old boy, Mark Smyth rode around with his parents, searching woods and ditches.

    They scoured parts of rural Middle Georgia trying to find any trace of his older brother, Jesse, who’d disappeared after returning from a trip to New Orleans.

    Walking to school in Milan, a small Telfair County town about 70 miles south of Macon, Smyth recalls looking down the street toward the house where a man named John Wayne Conner lived.

    Smyth hoped he’d see his brother’s car there.

    Smyth said his parents gave up nearly everything of value that they had to hire investigators and to pay for information about what had become of their 28-year-old son.

    It wasn’t until Conner was in jail, charged with killing another Milan man, J.T. White, that Jesse’s 1969 Chevrolet Caprice was pulled from the Ocmulgee River.

    Jesse’s body had been in the trunk for nearly nine months. His throat had been cut.

    A Telfair County jury sentenced Conner to death July 14, 1982, after convicting him of murder in White’s Jan. 9, 1982, beating death.

    Conner told authorities White, 29, had said he wanted to “go to bed” with his girlfriend and the two fought, according to court records.

    The next day, White’s body was found in a drainage ditch near Milan Elementary School.

    Conner later pleaded guilty to murder in Smyth’s death and was sentenced to life in prison.

    If he dies by lethal injection as scheduled July 14, Conner will have lived exactly 34 years under a death sentence. He’ll also be the first person convicted in a Telfair County case put to death in more than three decades.

    White’s sister, Julia Woodard, said she never thought Conner’s execution would be scheduled.

    After seeing several of her family members die without seeing her brother’s killer put to death, she figured Conner, 60, would die in prison.

    Upon hearing recently that an execution date had been set, “I jumped up and clapped,” the McRae woman said. “I’d gotten to the point where I didn’t even wait for it.”

    Lawyer: Conner is ‘intellectually disabled’

    Conner’s fate rests in the hands of a Butts County Superior Court judge and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

    The board is set to hear arguments July 13 about whether Conner should be granted clemency. His execution is set to be carried out on the night of July 14 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, home of the state’s death row.

    Meanwhile, a Butts County judge is considering a request filed by Conner’s lawyer, Brian Kammer, to have a jury trial to determine Conner’s intellectual status.

    It has been ruled unconstitutional for an intellectually disabled person to be executed.

    Kammer said a mental health expert has said his client has “at best, borderline intellectual functioning,” and is just on the cut-off for being considered “mentally retarded.”

    “We think we have a very good claim that he is intellectually disabled,” he said.

    Jurors who convicted Conner of murder 32 years ago didn’t hear evidence of his mental state, Kammer said. The trial lasted just three days.

    He said Conner also comes from one of the most violent and abusive upbringings he’s seen in 20 years of representing inmates sentenced to death.

    His father was a “violent alcoholic” who shot, cut and beat his wife and children, Kammer said.

    Conner still has a dent in his head from when he was 8 and his father struck him with an ax, he said.

    “When you grow up in those circumstances, you’re not going to do well in life,” Kammer said.

    What’s more, prosecutors these days aren’t seeking the death penalty in cases involving fights that turn fatal such as the one between White and Conner, he said.

    “His case is like an artifact of a bygone era,” Kammer said.

    He described his client as a “model inmate” who is “very well-liked in prison.”

    Conner is a “peacemaker” who has a calming influence on younger inmates, Kammer said.

    ‘He’s a threat’

    Woodard and Smyth plan to attend Conner’s clemency hearing to talk about their slain brothers, and to argue that Conner should be put to death.

    Woodard described the slain White as a bashful young man who was divorced and raising a 5-year-old daughter when he was killed. He worked at a local saw shop.

    “He wouldn’t have done nothing against nobody,” she said.

    She recalls him saying how he didn’t fight because he “couldn’t hurt another human.”

    White was her friend. Of her five brothers, he was the one who was her confidant.

    She said Conner being executed won’t just be justice for her brother, but also for Smyth and another man Conner fatally shot as a teenager.

    Smyth, who lives in Alabama, said he remembers his mother becoming sick from crying, not knowing what happened to his brother.

    Nothing was ever the same. His family became torn apart, he said.

    Before his mother died, she passed along information about how to stay in touch with the state and to be notified when Conner’s execution was scheduled, Smyth said.

    “He’s a threat. He will kill and kill again if he is out,” Smyth said. “There is no rehabilitation for people like that.”

    He said his brother treated Conner like a friend.

    To Smyth, it doesn’t seem fair that Conner — if he is executed — will be injected and, as Smyth put it, go to sleep.

    “He’ll go out quietly,” Smyth said, “painlessly.”

    http://www.macon.com/news/local/crim...e87359542.html

  9. #19
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    The Latest: Clemency hearing underway for death row inmate

    ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is holding a clemency hearing for an inmate scheduled to be executed later this week.

    Representatives for 60-year-old John Wayne Conner will have an opportunity Wednesday morning to appear before the board to argue on his behalf. Conner is set to be executed Thursday at the state prison in Jackson by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.

    Conner was convicted of beating his friend J.T. White to death in January 1982 during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use.

    The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia.

    http://m.beaumontenterprise.com/news...th-8356636.php
    Last edited by Helen; 07-13-2016 at 12:02 PM. Reason: Almost completely the same as post #17 & 18 (highly edited)
    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. #20
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Georgia to Execute John Wayne Conner Thursday

    Conner would be the sixth Georgia inmate put to death this year — the most since the death penalty was reinstated.

    A Georgia death row inmate is set to become the sixth person put to death by the state this year.

    John Wayne Conner, 60, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

    The execution would set a new record for Georgia. The state has never executed more than five people in a year in the 40 years since the death penalty was reinstated.

    Conner was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of James T. White in Telfair County.

    According to testimony, Conner, White and Conner's girlfriend had gone to a party in Eastman. After returning to Conner's house, Conner, then 25, and White, 29, walked to a neighbor's home to ask, unsuccessfully, for a ride to a liquor store.

    While walking back to Conner's house, Conner claims, White made a comment about wanting to have sex with Conner's girlfriend. The men fought, and Conner hit White first with a glass bottle then with a stick he found.

    After returning home, Conner told his girlfriend he may have killed White but that they needed to go back and make sure. The girlfriend testified that when they went back to the scene of the fight, she heard a thud, then Conner returned and told her White was dead.

    The couple were arrested the next day in Butts County.

    The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday morning heard appeals for clemency by Conner's attorneys.

    In their application to the board, the lawyers argued that during his 34 years in prison, Conner "has transformed himself from a violent young man with severe substance abuse problems into a peaceful and productive member of the prison community."

    They argued that Conner grew up in impoverished conditions in a home "where vicious physical assaults, incest, sexual abuse and alcoholism were the norm" and that he has been denied a proper mental health evaluation.

    A Superior Court judge in Butts County already had declined to halt Conner's execution.

    For his last meal, Conner has requested 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hush puppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and one sliced raw onion.

    http://patch.com/georgia/loganville/...onner-thursday

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