Georgia sets first execution after court ruling
Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:04pm EDT
By Matthew Bigg and Ed Stoddard

ATLANTA/DALLAS (Reuters) - Georgia has scheduled a May execution for
a convicted killer who will likely be the first U.S. convict put to
death since the Supreme Court last week ended a de facto moratorium
on capital punishment.

Executions are also scheduled in Virginia and Texas -- the two U.S.
states that carry out the death penalty most frequently -- in late
May, June and July, signaling a desire by legal authorities to
quickly resume a punishment that is still enforced in only a handful
of the world's democracies.

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 16 rejected a challenge to the lethal
three-drug cocktail used in most U.S. executions, which opponents had
claimed inflicted unnecessary pain.

A nationwide moratorium had been in effect since just after the court
said on September 25 last year that it would hear the appeal by two
death row inmates in Kentucky, raising hopes among opponents that it
could prove to be the death knell of capital punishment in America.

One convicted murderer was executed in Texas a few hours after the
court said it would hear the case but no execution has been carried
out since then in the United States.

The moratorium now looks to be over.

A court in Georgia's Berrien County filed an order to execute William
Earl Lynd during the week that starts at noon on May 6, state
Attorney General Thurbert Baker said in a statement this week.

The Department of Corrections will set a date and time during that
week for the death of Lynd, who murdered his girlfriend and another
woman 10 years ago.

In Virginia, a spokesman for Attorney General Robert McDonnell
confirmed the state has the following execution dates -- May 27 for
Kevin Green, June 10 for Percy Walton, and July 24 for Edward
Nathaniel Bell.

Those dates had been scheduled before the Supreme Court's ruling.
After the ruling, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced he was
lifting the state's moratorium he had imposed.

"In light of the Supreme Court ruling, executions will move forward
according to the procedures that were in place prior to the Court's
agreement to hear (the case) last September," his office said in a
statement.

And in Texas, the country's top death penalty state, the attorney
general's office confirmed on Wednesday that an execution date of
June 17 was set last week for Charles Dean Hood. He was convicted
almost two decades ago of double homicide.

The next person executed in America will be the 1,100th put to death
since the Supreme Court lifted a temporary ban on the practice in
1976. Since that time Texas has led the way with 405 executions
followed by Virginia with 98.

Last year 42 people were executed in America, the lowest number since
1994 when 31 were put to death. But the number would almost certainly
have been considerably higher in 2007 if it had not been for the
Supreme Court case.

"I think it will be slow at first but then the pace of executions
will probably pick up later this year," said Richard Dieter,
executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information
Center.

(Additional reporting by James Vicini in Washington)

(editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)