Marcus WellonsATLANTA – A Georgia death row inmate convicted of raping and strangling a 15-year-old girl is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.
Marcus Wellons was convicted in 1993 in the death of his neighbor, India Roberts, a high school sophomore.
He has a clemency hearing before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles today. But if his execution goes forward as planned Tuesday, Wellons will be the first inmate put to death in the U.S. since a botched execution in Oklahoma in April.
Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett died after his April 29 execution was halted when prison officials noted the lethal injection drugs — a combination of midazolam, vercuronium bromide and potassium chloride — weren’t being administered properly. The doctor inside the death chamber reported a single IV in Lockett’s groin became dislodged and the lethal drugs went into his tissue or leaked out of his body.
Oklahoma was using a new three-drug method for the first time, and Lockett writhed on the gurney, gritted his teeth and attempted to lift his head several times before the state’s prison director halted the execution. Lockett died anyway, about 43 minutes later from what prison officials have said was an apparent heart attack.