Next Georgia execution scheduled

By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/09/08
 
An execution warrant was signed Thursday for death-row inmate Samuel David Crowe, who is now scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection 7 p.m. on May 22.

Crowe, 47, was condemned to die for the March 2, 1988, murder of 39-year-old Joseph V. Pala, the retail manager at Wickes Lumber Co. in Douglasville.

This would be the second execution in Georgia this month. Tuesday, William Earl Lynd was the first inmate executed nationwide since September, when a de facto moratorium was put in place until the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Crowe, a former manager trainee at Wickes, had been experiencing financial difficulties in the days leading up to the murder.

On the night of the killing, he entered the lumber company and struck up a conversation with Pala.

When Pala's back was turned, Crowe shot him. Pala tried to escape and Crowe shot at him twice more but missed. He then hit Pala with a paint can, poured paint over his face and struck his skull with a crowbar. Crowe left with $1,160 in cash.

Facing a capital prosecution, Crowe pleaded guilty to murder. But at his sentencing trial, Crowe's jury was not allowed to see his guilty plea as part of mitigation to the crime, Ann Fort, one of his lawyers, said Thursday.

Fort also insisted Crowe had no intention of committing an armed robbery on the night of the killing.

"He had no prior criminal history, no history of violence whatsoever," she said. "He was a mixed-up kid suffering terribly from a drug addiction he didn't understand. It just exploded."

Douglas County District Attorney David McDade said he plans to attend the execution.

"The murder was committed March 2, 1988, and it's now May 2008," he said. "Joseph Pala's family has waited long enough for justice, and I hope they get it."

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2008/05/09/execution.html