Georgia Tries to Lead Nation in Executions Following Baze v. Rees
The Supreme Court placed a seven month moratorium on executions leading up to its decision in Baze v. Rees. Following Baze, Georgia became the first state to execute using lethal injection on May 6, William Earl Lynd, who had murdered his girlfriend two decades earlier. Samuel David Crowe would have been executed on May 22, but his sentence was commuted mere hours before his time of execution. As reported in the Gainesville Times, Georgia will try again on June 4 when it will attempt to execute Curtis Osborne, who was convicted for murdering a couple in Spalding County in 1990. Mississippi and Virginia have also executed inmates following Baze,and Texas has 14 executions scheduled for the remainder of this year.
One reason why Georgia was so quick to resume executions was that it has a shorter waiting period than other states between the time the death warrant is signed and the time that the State may move forward with the execution--just 29 days. Georgia's record for executions in a year was 23 set in 1935, when the State used the electric chair. Georgia adopted lethal injection as its method of execution in October 2001.
