ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia’s parole board on Tuesday declined to spare the life of a man set to be executed for the killings of his ex-wife and her boyfriend.
Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday. He was convicted and sentenced to die for the November 1997 killings of Sabrina “Joy” Lance and Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. in Jackson County, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant clemency after holding a closed-door hearing Tuesday. The parole board is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence.
In this undated photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections, shows death row inmate Donnie Clevelan Lance, who was convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than 20 years ago. State Attorney General Chris Carr announced Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 that Lance, 66, is scheduled to die on Jan. 29, 2020, at the state prison in Jackson, Ga. (AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections)
The board did not give a reason for its decision, saying only that it had considered the facts and circumstances, as well as the clemency application and testimony.
Lance went to Wood’s home the night of Nov. 8, 1997, kicked in the front door and shot Wood in the front and back with a shotgun and then beat Joy Lance to death with the butt of the shotgun, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case.