Panel to hold clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FILE - Georgia death row inmate John Wayne Conner is shown in this undated prison photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections. Georgia is preparing to break its own record for the most executions in a calendar year since the death penalty was reinstated 40 years ago. Conner is set to be executed Thursday July 14, 2016 for the killing of a friend after a night of drinking and marijuana use. Conner would be the sixth inmate executed this year by the state. Georgia executed five inmates last year and in 1987 (Georgia Department of Corrections via AP) (The Associated Press)
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to hold a clemency hearing for an inmate scheduled to be executed later this week.
Representatives for 60-year-old John Wayne Conner will have an opportunity Wednesday morning to appear before the board to argue on his behalf. Conner is set to be executed Thursday at the state prison in Jackson by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.
Conner was convicted of beating his friend J.T. White to death in January 1982 during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia.
In a clemency application, Conner's attorneys asked the board to consider his extremely violent childhood, as well as evidence they say proves he's intellectually disabled.