Georgia Death Row Fact Sheet

According to a July, 2007, report from the Georgia Department of Corrections, there are currently 101 men and one woman on death row in the state. As of January, 2006, six were convicted in Chatham County, making it the county with the third-highest number of inmates on death row.

Those six inmates are: Roy W. Blankenship, Jack Alderman, Troy Anthony Davis, Dorian O'Kelley, Billy Daniel Raulerson, Joseph Williams.

Darryl Stinski was sentenced to death in Chatham County in June, 2007.

For a complete breakdown of inmate statistics, including racial, social, familial and religious factors, click here for the report. This is in .pdf format, which requires the free Adobe Reader to read:

Georgia did not execute any inmates in 2006. The next scheduled inmate execution had been for Tuesday, July 17, 2007, until the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a stay of up to 90 days on July 16 following a clemency hearing for Troy Anthony Davis, convicted in the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

For WTOC's coverage of that case, click here.

Method of execution
In Georgia, the only legal method of execution has been lethal injection since the Georgia Supreme Court ruled electrocution cruel and unusual punishment in October of 2001. Prior to that, executions had been carried out by electrocution since 1924. From 1735, when the first recorded legal execution took place in Georgia, till 1924, the state executed prisoners by hanging.

Execution was suspended across the country in 1964 by the US Supreme Court, and the Georgia General Assembly passed a new death penalty law in 1973. The US Supreme Court upheld Georgia's execution law as constitutional in 1976. Georgia executed its first inmate following the reinstatement in 1983.

Executions in Georgia
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, there have been 40 men executed in Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated. Troy Davis was to be the 18th inmate put to death by lethal injection.

The average length of time spent by inmates on death row is currently 15 years in Georgia, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Abolition advocates
Georgia is one of 38 states in the USA with the death penalty. There are many groups opposed to the death penalty in any case, including Amnesty International USA, which has been following the case of Troy Davis (click here for their stance on the issue).