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| Georgia Executes Double-Murderer |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/19/2001 |
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A man convicted of killing his wife and father-in-law in 1979 was executed Thursday, the third condemned inmate Georgia has put to death in three weeks. Fred Marion Gilreath Jr., 63, had received a one-day stay Wednesday for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider his attorney's arguments that his clemency hearing was unfair. The court denied the motion. Gilreath was pronounced dead at 3:53 p.m., prison officials said. In his final statement, Gilreath thanked his lawyers 'for the good work they did for me, and for the men in blue, and the warden for treating me with respect, dignity and like a human being.' Gilreath's lawyers had contended the clemency hearing was unfair because one member of the five-person state Board of Pardons and Paroles was absent and some board members had conflicts of interest. Gilreath was convicted of killing his wife Linda Gilreath and his father-in-law Gerrit Van Leeuwen in Cobb County in 1979. His family argued he should not be executed because the slayings arose from a heated domestic dispute, and were not planned. Gilreath was sentenced to death in 1980. The Georgia execution was the third since the state Supreme Court ruled last month that the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment. All three condemned men were put to death by injection. Gilreath is the 26th inmate executed in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. |
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