Board denies clemency for Presnell; execution set to proceed Tuesday

Chart Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read
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May 17—The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a clemency request from convicted rapist and murderer Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., who is set to be executed by lethal injection Tuesday night.

Attorneys for Presnell, who has been on death row for 46 years, sought a 90-day stay of his execution and a commutation of his sentence to life without parole.

Presnell was convicted in 1976 of abducting eight-year-old Lori Smith and her 10-year-old friend from a wooded path in Smyrna as they walked home from school. He drove them to another wooded area in Cobb, where he raped the older girl and drowned Smith in Nickajack Creek.

The extraordinarily long term on death row is due in part to Presnell's initial death sentence being vacated. In 1999, then-Cobb District Attorney Pat Head successfully sought to have the penalty reimposed.

Monet Brewerton-Palmer, an attorney for the Federal Defender Program, argued in Presnell's clemency application that he was emotionally and intellectually stunted by fetal alcohol disorder, and has "significant cognitive impairments" that merit his protection from execution.

The filing likewise recounted decades of beatings and sexual abuse Presnell has experienced during his nearly five decades in prison.

"People can and will debate whether Mr. Presnell has served enough time, but nobody can dispute that he has served hard time," Brewerton-Palmer argued. "His crime was the worst of the worst — and so has his sentence been."

Steve Hayes, a spokesperson for the board, said Presnell's sister Wanda Graves and son Brian Terry called into the hearing to advocate for Presnell.

Unlike many other states which vest the power of clemency with their governor, Georgia's constitution gives sole authority for clemency to the Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Additional details of Monday's proceedings were not available to the public. Shortly after the board convened at 9 a.m., the hearing was closed as sensitive and confidential information was expected to be shared.

(Smith, who was drowned by Presnell in Nickajack Creek, was identified at the time of the crime. The 10-year-old girl, who testified in 1999 that Presnell raped her while Smith watched, was never publicly named.)

Presnell is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.