ATLANTA (AP) – A man convicted of killing a woman he met in a south Georgia nightclub is set to be put to death Thursday.
Marcus Ray Johnson, 50, is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. Johnson was convicted in the March 1994 rape and murder of Angela Sizemore in Albany.
Brian Kammer, an attorney for Johnson, argues his client shouldn’t be executed because doubts remain about his guilt. Prosecutors say there is no doubt Johnson killed Sizemore.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday denied Johnson’s request to commute his sentence or to delay it for 90 days to allow further DNA testing. The board, as is its custom, did not give a reason for its denial. The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia.
“The duty of the Board of Pardons and Paroles is to act as a failsafe to prevent miscarriages of justice such as the execution of persons whom the evidence shows may be innocent,” Kammer said. “The Board failed egregiously in this respect, and as a result the state of Georgia is about to execute an innocent man.