ATLANTA – The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has delayed next week’s execution of Melbert Ray Ford because a spot on the five-member clemency panel hasn’t been filled.
Ford was set to die by lethal injection on Feb. 23 for killing his former girlfriend and another woman in a 1986 robbery at the Newton County grocery store. On Thursday, the pardon board issued a 90-day stay.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has yet to name a replacement for Milton E. “Buddy” Nix, whose term expired at the end of 2009. Officials at the pardons board say the courts have previously held that a clemency consideration by a board of four members in a death case violates the state constitution. The court ordered the execution stayed until a fifth member was appointed.
A spokesman for Perdue said they were in the process of filling the vacancy.