Stephen Mobley - Georgia

As wonderful as the Simmons decision is, it unfortunately did not outlaw all executions.

Thirty-nine year old Stephen Mobley died at shortly after 8 p.m. this evening. The Georgia Parole Board had denied his request for clemency on February 26th, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to prevent the execution. Shortly before his death, Mobley stated that he was grateful for the opportunity to atone for his sins. He was only 24 when he robbed a pizza store and fatally shot John Collins, the store clerk.

According to reports, had life without possibility of parole been an available sentence in 1991, the victim's family, the prosecutor and 6 of the 10 jurors on Mobley's jury would have preferred that option over the penalty of death. Two years after his conviction, Georgia allowed the possibility of life without parole as an alternative to death in capital murder cases. Yet, the state killed Stephen Mobley tonight. I guess timing is often a source of irony isn't it?

Man executed for pizza store murder