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Fugate gets 2nd last-minute stay
Posted on Thu, Aug. 15, 2002 - TOP LOCAL NEWS
Wallace "Buck" Fugate III was within
an hour of being put to death Wednesday
evening when he received word that
the Georgia Supreme Court stayed his
execution to consider an appeal filed
by Fugate's attorney Stephen Bright.
By Rob Peecher / Telegraph Staff Writer
Fugate gets 2nd last-minute stay
By Rob Peecher - Telegraph Staff Writer
JACKSON - Wallace "Buck"
Fugate III was within an hour of being put to death
Wednesday evening when
he received word that the Georgia Supreme Court
stayed his execution
to consider an appeal filed by Fugate's attorney
Stephen Bright.
Bright was jubilant after
receiving word of the stay about 6:20 p.m. through
a cell phone while standing
with members of the media and a handful of death
penalty protesters outside
the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison,
where Georgia's executions
take place. Fugate was scheduled to die at 7 p.m.
The temporary stay issued
by the state's highest court could be lifted and
Fugate put to death at
any time until noon Wednesday, when the court-ordered
seven-day window for
his execution ends.
Fugate was convicted
in 1992 and sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of
his ex-wife, Pattie Fugate.
Wednesday's stay was
the second time this summer Fugate had received a stay
within hours of his scheduled
execution.
In June, Fugate learned
about two hours before he was due to be executed
that he would receive
a stay because his petition for clemency had not been
heard by a full parole
board. Two board members under investigation had
resigned just days before
Fugate's hearing.
Bright, who represents
death-row inmates for the Southern Center for Human
Rights, said he had appeals
pending before both the Georgia and U.S. Supreme
Courts, which also could
have given Fugate a last-minute stay. The Georgia
Supreme Court appeal
is based on a Monday hearing in Fulton County Superior
Court, where it was revealed
the State Board of Pardons and Paroles was
relying on possibly incorrect
information in deciding whether to grant
Fugate clemency.
Transcripts from that
Monday hearing were not available Wednesday for review
by the Supreme Court,
prompting the court to issue the stay, said Sara
Totonchi, public policy
coordinator for the Southern Center for Human
Rights.
Bright said he learned
at the end of Monday's hearing that the parole board
had met with and received
information from individuals opposed to clemency
for Fugate. Bright said
some of the information that board members heard was
incorrect, but because
the meeting was held in private and without his
knowledge, Bright said
he still does not know who met with the board or all
of what they said.
"I assume it was local
prosecutors and members of the family" the board met
with, Bright said.
These closed door meetings
are not uncommon for those seeking or opposed to
clemency for inmates
facing death, Bright said. The board routinely meets
with those both in favor
of and opposed to clemency, and in Fugate's case
Bright did address the
board in a similar meeting, Bright said.
"You get to come and
say what you want to say, and a lot of times (the board
members) just sit there
and don't say anything," Bright said.
Bright said someone who
met with the board to urge it to deny clemency for
Fugate said Fugate had
raped his ex-wife. That information, Bright said, is
incorrect, though the
parole board did not know that.
It was unclear Wednesday
if the Supreme Court will hear arguments, but
Bright said he hopes
it will grant Fugate a trial on the issue of clemency.
Fugate wrote a letter
inviting Gov. Roy Barnes to attend Wednesday's
execution.
"Please consider this
as a means to show the world you have the courage of
your convictions and
attend my execution. For the very first time you can
witness the results of
our state's decision and have the courage to look me
in the eye in my dying
moments knowing I am being sacrificed only because I
was too poor to afford
to hire decent lawyers and because I live in the
middle of the 'Death
Belt,' " Fugate wrote.
Bright has maintained
that Fugate's trial attorneys - who he said were not
criminal defense attorneys
- failed to give Fugate adequate representation.
Fugate continues to claim
the shooting of his ex-wife was an accident, that
the gun in his hand went
off during a struggle with his ex-wife.
Fugate's son was with
his mother when the two returned home to find Fugate
there. His son, who was
killed after his father's trial in an unrelated
incident, testified against
his father and said the shooting was deliberate.
To contact Rob Peecher, call (706) 485-3987 or e-mail: rpeecher@communicomm.com
The Associated Press
JACKSON -- A man convicted
of killing his wife in front of their 15-year-old son in 1991 was executed
Tuesday.
Wallace M. Fugate III, 52, was pronounced dead at 9:46 p.m., the seventh man put to death since Georgia adopted lethal injection as its method of execution.
A lethal sequence of three chemicals was pumped into Fugate's body to take his life -- the sedative sodium pentothal first, followed by Pavulon to paralyze his lungs, and potassium chloride to stop his heart.
A federal judge refused Fugate's claim Tuesday that lethal injection is illegally cruel because it may be possible for prisoners to feel intense pain if the sedative wears off before death.
Fugate, of Putnam County, was sentenced to die for the fatal shooting of his wife, Pattie.
Fugate killed her during a struggle outside the family home, according to court testimony. But he insisted the gun fired accidently after he took it out to a van and they scuffled inside.
Fugate's son, Mark, who was slain five years after his mother in an unrelated case, gave two accounts of his mother's death. He told police his view was blocked and that he could not tell whether Fugate grabbed his mother by the hair and fired the gun in her face.
At the trial, he testified that he saw his father tilt his mother's head back, pull the trigger and then look at him and smile.
The record of the trial
and appeals shows Fugate's appointed trial lawyers did not challenge the
son's testimony, nor did they hire an investigator to check the account.
The lawyers also
appeared to be unfamiliar
with any significant Supreme Court decisions concerning the death penalty.
But a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence last summer, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal in May.
The state Supreme Court denied his appeal on Wednesday and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay Friday night.
He was the 30th prisoner
executed since Georgia resumed capital punishment in 1973. One woman and
119 men remain on death row.
JUNE 17, 2002 (Monday)
Buck's family visited him under his
Death Watch from 9:00-4:00 pm. We were
told that two members of the parole
board had finally resigned from the
five-person panel. Gov. Roy Barnes
named a replacement for only one of them,
saying he would fill the other seat
later.
At the time I had no ideal how big
a political issue my brother's trial
would turn into.
JUNE 18, 2002 (Tuesday)
Went to Buck's hearing. His attorney,
Stephen Bright, asked the four
sitting members of the parole board
to stay his execution until a fifth
member could be appointed. We
found out in the late afternoon, they refused
a stay.
Bright took the matter up with Fulton
County Superior Court Judge, Jack
Goger. He ruled the state Constitution
and Georgia law stated the Board of
Pardons and Paroles "shall consist
of five members" and asked the parole
board to reconsider their decision.
The state challenged Goger and told him
they stood by their decision.
The family said their 'good-byes' to
Buck at 3:00 pm. Around 5:00 pm, right
after he had finished eating his last
meal of steak and lobster, Buck was
notified Goger overruled the board
and had given him a stay of his scheduled
7:00 pm execution. For how long no
one knew.
JUNE 19, 2002 (Wednesday)
Buck's attorneys asked the Supreme
Court to extend the stay.
The attorney general appealed Goger's
decision and asked the court not to
extend the stay.
His parents went home at 4:00 pm with
the matter still pending.
The current death warrant allowed Buck
to be executed at any time after the
stay was lifted.
JUNE 20, 2002 (Thursday)
Buck's family visited until 4:00 pm.
We left having heard not one thing and
knew a different ruling could be granted
at any given. If that happened the
execution would be carried out that
evening. Only thing we heard were the
rumors that the prison warden had been
called and told to get ready for the
execution. Things did not look
good for Buck. Right before 5:00 pm we
received a call saying the members
of the court had went home and that the
matter was left pending.
JUNE 21, 2002 (Friday)
The family visited Buck under a Death
Watch again until around 2:00 pm. The
court was still in session. Around
2:30 pm we received a call from the
attorneys saying THE GEORGIA SUPREME
COURT UPHELD BUCK'S STAY BUT THAT THE WARRANT FOR HIS LETHAL INJECTION
IS STILL IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON TUESDAY, JUNE 25th. Unless the court
hears arguments before that time, and overrules the stay, a new death warrant
will have to be signed and another execution date set.
As I am typing this update, the justices
have not schedule another hearing.
***The justices are to hear arguments
in October on the issue if a parole
board, not fully constituted, can consider
a condemned person's final
appeal.
This whole thing is now nothing but
politics and does not even take into
issue Buck's guilt or innocence.
Fulton Superior Court
Judge John Goger ruled wisely Tuesday to stay the
execution of Wallace
Fugate until the Board of Pardons and Paroles has a
fifth member as required
by the Georgia Constitution.
The case poses larger
issues as well. Unlike the 29 individuals put to death
by Georgia since 1976,
Fugate has no prior criminal record and there were no
aggravating circumstances
of the sort normally required for imposition of
the death penalty. Three
of the 12 jurors in the case have stated in sworn
affidavits that they
would have voted for life without parole instead of the
death penalty had they
been given that option.
Fugate, who turned himself
in immediately after his wife died of a gunshot,
still contends his gun
went off accidentally during a struggle between the
couple, who had divorced
after a 20-year marriage. He had no record of prior
domestic abuse. Prosecutors
had to stretch to find the required
"aggravating" factor,
arguing that Fugate "kidnapped" his wife when he
carried her from her
house to a car in order to drive to the Putnam County
sheriff's office for
a mediation of their dispute.
It would be hard for the
staunchest death penalty proponent to contend that
Fugate's two-day trial,
perhaps the shortest in state capital crime history,
was fair. He couldn't
afford to hire a lawyer and neither of the two lawyers
appointed to represent
him would meet even the minimum qualifications now
required by the Georgia
Supreme Court for death penalty lawyers. They
conducted no investigation
of the facts, hired no ballistic experts to
counter those for the
prosecution, and called only one of 35 suggested
character witnesses at
a 27-minute penalty hearing in which death was
imposed. Eatonton friends
and neighbors, never summoned to testify, say
Fugate, a carpenter,
worked hard and had a record of unselfish community
service.
Unless Goger is overruled
by the state supreme court, a full five-member
parole board must reconsider
the Fugate case. It should pay particular
attention to the role
played by the state's sorry system of indigent
defense. In counties
that provide well-trained lawyers for the poor, Fugate
would most likely have
received a life sentence.
Gov. Roy Barnes, a lawyer,
once acknowledged to graduating law students that
in Georgia, "far too
many people face the possibility of an unjust outcome
because they must attempt
to navigate an often complicated legal system
without the benefit of
competent counsel." Nowhere is that more important
than in death-penalty
cases. Barnes should appoint a panel to review the
cases of every death
row inmate whose lawyers would not meet today's
standards of competency.
Fugate wins stay of execution
A judge halted the execution of Wallace
Fugate with just hours to go
today, saying the convicted killer
deserves another clemency hearing
before a full parole board.
The 52-year-old Fugate was scheduled
to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m.
tonight for the 1991 shooting death
of his ex-wife, Pattie.
Fulton Superior Court Judge John J.
Goger had asked the state Attorney
General's Office on Monday to delay
the execution until an empty seat is
filled on the Board of Pardons and
Paroles, affording Fugate a clemency
hearing before a full panel. But the
AG declined and, after a
teleconference this morning with opposing
attorneys, Goger issued the
order to stay the execution.
(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Fugate wins brief reprieve
on technicality
Had been set to die at
7 p.m. Tuesday
3 hours before his scheduled execution
Tuesday, convicted killer
Wallace Fugate won an extension on
his life.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge John
Goger delayed the planned lethal
injection of Fugate, 52, because the
5-member state Board of Pardons and
Paroles has a vacancy. Last week 2
members resigned amid allegations of
corruption, but the governor named
a replacement for only 1 of them.
The 4 sitting members of the parole
board refused Monday to stay Fugate's
execution until a fifth member could
be appointed. That was the grounds
that Fugate's lawyer used to argue
to delay the execution, which had been
scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Goger had asked the state's lawyers
and the parole board to reconsider
Monday. But the state's attorneys told
Goger on Tuesday morning that the
board stood by its decision.
Goger ruled late Tuesday afternoon that
the state Constitution and
Georgia law state that the Board of
Pardons and Paroles "shall consist of
5 members" and that meant that Fugate
could not be executed until there
are 5 people sitting on the parole
board and they looked at Fugate's case
again.
"The opportunity to present a case for
clemency is unique and firmly
rooted in our criminal justice system,"
Goger wrote in his ruling, noting
"the irreparable harm to the defendant
should a stay not be granted."
The attorney general has appealed Goger's
decision to the state Supreme
Court, where the matter is pending.
The current death warrant allows
Fugate to be executed anytime before
next Tuesday should the Supreme
Court disagree with Goger.
"I felt that the state was correct on
the legal issues when Judge Goger
initially asked us to stop this execution,
and I still feel that Judge
Goger is wrong on the legal issue before
the court," Attorney General
Thurbert Baker said.
Fugate has lost all his other appeals,
including those that were filed
after his execution date was set for
the 1991 murder of his estranged
wife, Pattie Fugate.
Fugate had already said goodbye to his
family and eaten his last meal
when he learned he would live a while
longer.
(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)
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