News Scan

Georgia Executes Double Murderer:  A Georgia man convicted in 1999 of the brutal murder of his ex-wife and her boyfriend was put to death Wednesday by lethal injection.  Joshua Sharpe and Bill Rankin of the Atlanta Journal Constitution report that in 1967 Donnie Lance shot and killed his ex-wife’s boyfriend Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. with a shotgun, then used the butt of the gun to beat Joy Lance to death.  The woman’s face was so badly beaten it was unrecognizable.  The Washington Post reports that jurors learned at trial that Lance had terrorized his ex-wife for months with beatings, strangulation, electric shocks, threats of death by handgun and chain-saw, and more. Witnesses testified that they had heard Lance threaten to kill his wife if she divorced him or started a romantic relationship with Wood.

Additional evidence included shoe prints at the murder scene that matched prints and a shoebox in Lance’s garage along with shotgun shells that matched those which killed Wood.  Last minute appeals were denied by the Supreme Court two hours before Lance’s execution.  Claims raised by Lance’s defense counsel over the years included;  bias among members of the Grand Jury;  an incompetent trial attorney; a lack of DNA evidence;  and borderline intellectual disability.  While Lance’s two children by his ex-wife opposed his execution, Wood’s family supported it.  His sister told reporters “I watched Butch’s kids grow up without a dad.”  Lance received a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 8:56 PM.  He was pronounced dead at 9:05 PM.