ATLANTA (AP) – A man convicted of killing an off-duty prison guard after asking him for a ride outside a Georgia Walmart store is scheduled to be executed next month.
Robert Earl Butts Jr., 40, is scheduled to die May 3 at the state prison in Jackson, state Attorney General Chris Carr said in a statement Monday. Butts and Marion Wilson Jr., 41, were convicted and sentenced to death in the March 1996 slaying of Donovan Corey Parks.
Wilson’s case is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys for Butts have argued that his trial defense was ineffective and failed to thoroughly investigate his case or to present mitigating evidence, including a childhood characterized by abuse and neglect, that could have spared him the death penalty. State and federal courts have rejected his appeals.
But his lawyers argued in a federal court filing last week that a Georgia Supreme Court opinion published in January opens the door for a federal judge to consider his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.