Georgia executes Scotty Morrow, the ex-girlfriend of the 2nd woman almost 25 years ago

Jackson, Ga. – A man who shot his ex-girlfriend and another woman nearly 25 years ago was executed on Thursday night in Georgia.

The death of Scotty Garnell Morrow was about 9:38 pm, director Benjamin Ford told Jackson State Prison witnesses.

Morrow, 52, was convicted of the murder of former girlfriend Barbara Ann Young and friend Tonya Woods at Young's home in Gainesville in December 1994.

Hung to a gourd before receiving a lethal injection of sedative pentobarbital, Morrow said, "I would like to extend my deepest apologies to the Woods family and the Young family," adding that he hoped to find peace.

He also apologized to La Toya Horne, who was also shot but survived. And he apologized to his friends and family for the pain and suffering, saying, "I love you all."

An imam from the Department of Corrections read a prayer and ended with: "I love you, brother." Morrow replied, "I love you too."

The inmate moved his mouth and blinked for a few minutes as the drug began to flow. Then he turned his head to the right, yawned and took deep breaths before standing still.

Morrow was the first inmate put to death in Georgia this year. His execution took place shortly after the United States Supreme Court rejected a last-minute offer to prevent the death penalty from being executed.

Morrow and Young had been dating each other for about six months when she broke up with him in December 1994 because he had become violent, summed up the Georgia Supreme Court case. He went home on December 29 to try to win her back.

Young was in his kitchen with two of his children and two friends, Woods and Horne, when Morrow arrived. The two men quarreled and Woods ordered Morrow to leave, saying that Young no longer wanted to be with him, the resume said. Morrow shouted at Woods to remain silent, pulled a handgun out of his belt and started firing.

He shot Woods in the abdomen, cutting off his spine, says the resume. He also shot Horne on the arm.

Young escaped from the kitchen and Morrow followed him to his room where he beat her, then followed her into the hallway, grabbing her by the hair and shot him in the head, according to the summary. Young's 5-year-old son, hidden in a nearby bedroom, saw Morrow slaughter his mother.

Morrow then returned to the kitchen, shot a dead bullet under Woods' chin and shot Horne in the face and arm before leaving the house. Young and Woods died from their injuries. Horne was seriously injured but was able to ask for help.

Arrested a few hours later, Morrow admitted to shooting at the women. At trial, he admitted that he had started shooting because he wanted Woods to "shut up".

Morrow's lawyers claimed to have seen his mother severely beaten and repeatedly raped and beaten like a child. The lingering effects of this abuse have left him unable to properly treat and express his emotions, they said.

When Woods told him that Young had used him to earn money and companionship while his "real man" was in jail, he cracked it, his lawyers said.

Morrow was convicted of two murders for murder, among other charges, in June 1999. A state court quashed his death sentence in February 2011, finding that his lawyers had not done enough to investigate and submit mitigating evidence at trial. But the Georgian Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty later that year.

His appeals to states and federal authorities were exhausted in February when the US Supreme Court refused to hear his case.

The National Council of Pardons and Speeches, the only authority in Georgia to commute a death sentence, rejected Morrow's request for pardon following an in camera hearing held on Wednesday. Morrow's lawyers had described in the pardon petition as rehabilitated, a model prisoner sentenced to death, a mentor for the other prisoners and an aide for the guards. They said that he felt great remorse for the pain and loss that he had caused to the Woods and Young families.

"Mr. Morrow's acts of violence were aberrations in a life otherwise characterized by kindness and compassion and the man he became in December 1994 bears no resemblance to the man who He was before and to the man he's been working for since, "wrote his lawyer. in the leniency petition.

Corrections officials said Morrow received Thursday a visit from a friend, 10 family members, two clergy and four lawyers.