London Lass
06-05-2008, 03:14 AM
Double murderer executed
Curtis Osborne was executed Wednesday evening even though his lawyers tried until the last hours to find a court that would stop the lethal injection. The grounds: That his trial attorney did not effectively defend him when he was tried for a 1990 double murder.
Osborne, 37, was pronounced dead at 9:05 p.m., minutes after his executioners injected the 1st of 3 drugs to kill him. He was the 2nd man Georgia has executed in a month. He also was the 4th person in the country to die by lethal injection since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the method was constitutional.
Despite the final attempts by his attorneys, Osborne went to his death without the last-minute drama of a possible stay that often comes before an execution. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles Board heard his argument for mercy on Friday and denied him on Monday. The courts had already rejected Osborne's contention that his attorney at trial was a racist and those attitudes were the reason for an inadequate defense, especially when it came time to argue to the jury that it sentence him to life in prison instead of death.
Osborne's lawyers now say the late Johnny Mostiler, the white public defender in Spalding County at the time, had used a racial slur when he referred to Osborne, an African-American, and said his client should be executed. They also said Mostiler did not ask for money to hire an expert who could have told the jury of Osborne's mental illness, drug use and his family's dysfunctional history.
Osborne was executed for shooting Arthur Jones and Linda Lisa Seaborne on Aug. 7, 1990. Osborne allegedly killed Jones because Osborne didn't want to give him the $400 he got for selling Jones' motorcycle. Seaborne was killed because she was there.
As his hour of death approached, death-penalty opponents gathered at on the edge of the property of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson, about a mile from the death chamber, and at locations in 7 other cities. They held signs and sang in protest.
Former prosecutor Bill McBroom has said Mostiler was a zealous defender of Osborne and he has denied the claims now that Mostiler, who died of a massive heart attack in 2000, ever suggested a racist attitude concerning his clients.
At the same time, Osborne's advocates before the Parole Board and in public statements included one-time high-ranking officials who no longer hold those positions - President Jimmy Carter, Attorney General Griffin Bell, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and FBI Director William Sessions.
Fletcher, who is no longer on the court, told the board in his comments to them and in writing that procedures would not allow him to intercede for Osborne any of the 3 times his appeals were before the Georgia Supreme Court.
Osborne becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this year and the 42nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.
Osborne becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1103rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Rick Halperin)
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/updates.html
Curtis Osborne was executed Wednesday evening even though his lawyers tried until the last hours to find a court that would stop the lethal injection. The grounds: That his trial attorney did not effectively defend him when he was tried for a 1990 double murder.
Osborne, 37, was pronounced dead at 9:05 p.m., minutes after his executioners injected the 1st of 3 drugs to kill him. He was the 2nd man Georgia has executed in a month. He also was the 4th person in the country to die by lethal injection since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the method was constitutional.
Despite the final attempts by his attorneys, Osborne went to his death without the last-minute drama of a possible stay that often comes before an execution. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles Board heard his argument for mercy on Friday and denied him on Monday. The courts had already rejected Osborne's contention that his attorney at trial was a racist and those attitudes were the reason for an inadequate defense, especially when it came time to argue to the jury that it sentence him to life in prison instead of death.
Osborne's lawyers now say the late Johnny Mostiler, the white public defender in Spalding County at the time, had used a racial slur when he referred to Osborne, an African-American, and said his client should be executed. They also said Mostiler did not ask for money to hire an expert who could have told the jury of Osborne's mental illness, drug use and his family's dysfunctional history.
Osborne was executed for shooting Arthur Jones and Linda Lisa Seaborne on Aug. 7, 1990. Osborne allegedly killed Jones because Osborne didn't want to give him the $400 he got for selling Jones' motorcycle. Seaborne was killed because she was there.
As his hour of death approached, death-penalty opponents gathered at on the edge of the property of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson, about a mile from the death chamber, and at locations in 7 other cities. They held signs and sang in protest.
Former prosecutor Bill McBroom has said Mostiler was a zealous defender of Osborne and he has denied the claims now that Mostiler, who died of a massive heart attack in 2000, ever suggested a racist attitude concerning his clients.
At the same time, Osborne's advocates before the Parole Board and in public statements included one-time high-ranking officials who no longer hold those positions - President Jimmy Carter, Attorney General Griffin Bell, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and FBI Director William Sessions.
Fletcher, who is no longer on the court, told the board in his comments to them and in writing that procedures would not allow him to intercede for Osborne any of the 3 times his appeals were before the Georgia Supreme Court.
Osborne becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this year and the 42nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.
Osborne becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1103rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Rick Halperin)
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/updates.html