Georgia man faces execution today

By The Associated Press

Published: May 6, 2008

ATLANTA — Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a Georgia man who killed his girlfriend is likely to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions last September.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied William Earl Lynd's appeal for clemency. The board rejected his lawyer's argument that forensic evidence at his 1990 trial was flawed, clearing the way for his execution, scheduled for this evening.

Lynd was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 26, in south Georgia in 1988, after the two consumed Valium, marijuana and alcohol.

Lynd, 53, has a request for a stay before the Georgia Supreme Court, but preparations were moving forward for his execution.

He has already selected his final meal: two pepper jack barbecue burgers with crisp onions; two baked potatoes with sour cream, bacon and cheese; and a strawberry milkshake.

He would be the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates with a three-drug injection is constitutional.

Following the decision to review Kentucky's lethal injections, states had stopped executing inmates for seven months, the longest pause in 25 years.