Ga. man executed, ending 7-month moratorium


May 6, 10:47 PM (ET)

By SHANNON McCAFFREY

JACKSON, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia man who killed his live-in girlfriend
was executed Tuesday, the first inmate put to death since the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections.

William Earl Lynd was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m. EDT, Georgia
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mallie McCord told The
Associated Press. It came less than an hour after the U.S. Supreme
Court rejected efforts to block it.

The roughly three dozen states around the country that use lethal
injection held off on carrying out any executions for more than seven
months while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of
the three-drug cocktail that's used. It was the longest pause in U.S.
executions in a quarter century.

The Supreme Court last month upheld the legality of lethal
injections.

Lynd, 53, was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-
in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, three times in the face and head two
decades ago. After he buried Moore's body in a shallow grave near a
south Georgia farm, authorities said Lynd fled to Ohio, where he shot
and killed another woman who had stopped along the side of the road
to help him.

Lynd never denied killing Moore, 26, two days before Christmas in
1988. But his lawyers had sought a last minute reprieve from the
courts, arguing that new forensic evidence showed he could not have
kidnapped her because she was already dead when he stuffed her in the
trunk of her car.

Prosecutors allege that Moore was still alive when Lynd placed her in
the trunk - despite two gunshot wounds to the head. They say Lynd
confessed to authorities that he fired the final, lethal shot when he
heard her "thumping around" in the trunk.

The kidnapping had been an essential "aggravating" circumstance that
made Lynd eligible for the death penalty.

Lawyers say Lynd and Moore had a volatile relationship and were in a
heated argument over a trip to Florida when he shot her. His
attorney, Tom Dunn, argued that the shooting was not premeditated,
and took place after the two had taken Valium, marijuana and alcohol.
In the days leading up to Lynd's execution, Dunn asked several
courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, to block it but was turned
down each time.

Lynd's execution came about 30 minutes after its 7 p.m. EDT scheduled
time as officials waited to hear whether the U.S. Supreme Court would
step in and halt it, and as they awaited the final go-ahead from the
state attorney general.

The procedure began at 7:34 p.m. EDT with Lynd's heavily tattooed
arms and neck strapped down to a gurney. He did not have any last
remarks and declined a final prayer. As the chemicals began to flow
into his arms, he blinked repeatedly, shuddered and yawned several
moments into the procedure. He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later.

About three dozen people watched Lynd's execution, including the
brother and sister-in-law of Lynd's girlfriend.

Death penalty opponents staged vigils around the state Tuesday night
to protest the first of an expected wave of executions around the
country. At the state Capitol in Atlanta, more than 40 people
protested and unfurled a red, white and blue banner that said "Stop
the Death Penalty."

About a dozen protesters were outside the state prison.

"I just feel a profound sense of sadness that our state has rushed to
be the first in the country to resume executing people," said Laura
Moye, of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Jeanne Zittrauer was among eight people who stood outside the city
hall in Savannah, about 250 miles east of Atlanta, to protest Lynd's
execution.

"It makes me ashamed that Georgia is the first one to do this, that
we would jump right in there," the 65-year-old Zittrauer said. "I'm
not saying he's guilty or innocent, but I don't believe any man
deserves to be put to death."

Texas conducted the nation's last execution, putting Michael Richard
to death on Sept. 25, 2007, the same day the Supreme Court agreed to
consider a Kentucky case brought by two prisoners who claimed the
lethal injection method violated the constitutional ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.