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Scotty Garnell Morrow, 52, was executed Thursday at 9:38 pm in a state prison in Georgia for the murder of her ex-girlfriend and girlfriend in December 1994.
The state of Georgia executed a man who killed his ex-girlfriend and another woman in a paralyzing murder almost 25 years ago on Thursday night.
Scotty Garnell Morrow, 52, was pronounced dead Thursday at 9:38 pm, following an injection of pentobarbital at Jackson State Prison.
He was killed after the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute offer to block his execution.
Before taking his last breath, Morrow savored his last requested meal: a burger with mayonnaise, two chicken-based dishes and waffles, two whole-frankies and a bag of popcorn.
He watered the meal with a big lemonade and for dessert ate a pint of pecan ice cream.
Before his death on the phone, he had confessed to WSBTV that he did not want to die.
& # 39; I do not want to die. But I am at peace. God willing, it will be done, he says.
"I do not want to, but if that's what happens, I can not change anything," he added.
He was the father of two children and grandfather of four children. He was the first person to be executed in Georgia this year and the fifth to be executed nationwide in 2019.
Speaking of the 1994 Christmas murder, he said, "It was a crime of passion. I lost control of my emotions.
Morrow was sentenced for the shooting of his ex-girlfriend Barbara Ann Young and his friend Tonya Woods at Young's home in Gainesville in December 1994. A third woman was also affected but survived.
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.
When he returned home on December 29 to reclaim her, he became violent and shot her in front of her five-year-old son who was hiding in his mother's room.
Young was in his kitchen with two of his children and two friends when Morrow arrived.
The two men quarreled and Woods ordered Morrow to leave, claiming that Young no longer wanted to be with him.
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 on the arm of Young's other friend, LaToya Horne.
Morrow photographed above in an undated old mugshot
Young escaped from the kitchen and Morrow followed him to his room, where he beat her, then followed her into the hallway, caught her by the hair and shot him in the head, said the summary.
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.
Morrow was arrested in a few hours and confessed to shooting at the women.
Morrow's lawyers claimed that he had been beaten and raped as a child and that the lingering consequences of this abuse had prevented him from treating and expressing his emotions appropriately.
When Woods told him that Young was using him to earn money and companionship while his "real man" was in jail, he broke down, his lawyers said.
Morrow was convicted of two counts of malicious murder in June 1999 and sentenced to death.
A state court quashed his death sentence in February 2011, concluding that his trial lawyers had not done enough to investigate and present mitigating evidence during the trial phase of the sentence. . But the Georgian Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty later that year.
His usual appeals to states and federal authorities were exhausted in February when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear his case.
In a leniency application, Morrow's lawyers had asked the State Council for graces and speech to spare him life, according to AJJ.
The chamber rejected this request after an in camera hearing on Wednesday. The Parole Board is the only authority in Georgia to commute a death sentence.
Morrow's lawyers had described it in the petition as rehabilitated, as a model prisoner on death row, as 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.
Morrow's lawyers also filed an application in a state court stating that his death sentence was unconstitutional because it had been wrongly inflicted.
He was executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, where he spent nearly a third of his life.
Morrow's lawyers in the post-conviction proceedings challenged the constitutionality of his sentence in a motion filed in federal court in 2012.
His trial lawyers failed to properly investigate his childhood, so jurors did not hear of years of abuse and intimidation by Morrow.
If his lawyers had conducted a proper investigation, they could have proven that Morrow "was a really nice guy who, because of the psychological suffering of his past, broke it," his lawyers said.
They say that he was not able, emotionally, to share his childhood trauma with the psychologist at his trial in 1999.
His violent childhood led him to repress his emotions, left him in search of acceptance and love and made it extremely difficult for him to properly communicate his emotions, wrote his lawyers.
Woods told him that Young no longer needed him and that he was using her to get financial support while his former boyfriend was in jail, the state of demand. These comments "provoked a life of unresolved torment and refusal at Mr. Morrow's," and his lawyers wrote.
He immediately felt remorse when he returned home and decided to commit suicide, stopping only when he heard his young son call him because he did not want the boy to find him dead, according to a letter from his ex-wife, Claudette McCray, quoted in the application.
Morrow was tormented by the pain and loss he caused to the Young and Woods families, and was particularly devastated at taking Young from his five children, the app says.
He remains close to his own family and, although he is locked up, actively participates in the life of his two adult sons, grandchildren and other family members, the petition says.
He also sought redemption through a deep commitment to his faith, says the application. Several prison guards, councilors and chaplains reportedly stated that he was an exemplary detainee, serving as a mentor and role model for those sentenced to death and for guards.
State lawyers argued that these claims had already been reviewed and dismissed by the courts.
A judge agreed to the state and dismissed the order. Morrow's lawyers then appealed to the Supreme Court.
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