Georgia Inmate Says 'I'm Going Home to Jesus' Before First Execution Since Botched Lethal Injection
A Georgia prisoner exclaimed that he was "going home to be with Jesus" when he was executed Tuesday night for the 1989 rape and murder of his 15-year-old neighbor.
The 59-year-old inmate, Marcus Wellons, received his fatal injection of pentobarbital shortly after 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night, and reportedly took a few deep breaths before going completely still about five minutes into the procedure.
Before receiving the injection, Wellons apologized to the family of his victim, India Roberts, who he raped in 1989 in suburban Atlanta while she was on her way to school. She was 15 years old at the time of her death.
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"I ask and hope they will find peace in my death," Wellons said of the victim's family, adding "I'm going home to be with Jesus," after he thanked his family for their prayers.
Wellons was executed a day after he was denied clemency by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. His execution came just minutes before the execution of Jon Winfield of Missouri, who was found guilty of the 1996 murder of two St. Louis women, whom he shot in the head. Winfeld also sought clemency but did not receive a last minute pardon from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The executions of Wellons and Winfield were the first since the botched execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett in April, who reportedly appeared to writhe in pain after he was injected with a new, three drug lethal concoction. The execution was then halted, but Lockett died shortly after of a heart attack.
Lockett's grisly death prompted criticism from death penalty opponents, who argued many states receive their lethal chemicals from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies, adding the execution staff were not fully educated on the safety of the formulas. Some pharmacies stopped providing states with the lethal drugs once they found out they were being used for executions.
Georgia passed a law last year that provided the state secrecy in details surrounding its lethal injections, including the identity of the pharmacy that supplies the lethal drug, as well as details about the lethal drug's composition. The law has been able to remain in effect after Georgia's Supreme Court upheld it last month, saying it played a "positive role" in the capital punishment process.
