Georgia Prepares to Execute John Conner Despite Evidence of Intellectual Impairment, Traumatic Upbringing

Georgia is con­tin­u­ing with prepa­ra­tions to exe­cute John Conner (pic­tured) on July 14 after the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his clemen­cy peti­tion and the Georgia Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution. 

In the clemen­cy pro­ceed­ings, Conner’s attor­neys pre­sent­ed evi­dence that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled and that he was raised in pover­ty and extreme vio­lence in a home filled with chron­ic drug and alco­hol abuse and in which sex­u­al and emo­tion­al abuse were the norm. Conner’s lawyers wrote that, at a young age, he was ​“indoc­tri­nat­ed into a life that nor­mal­ized drugs, alco­hol, and vio­lence, so much so that he drunk­en­ly beat a friend to death in reac­tion to a lewd com­ment.” They also said Conner’s teach­ers had iden­ti­fied him as intellectually disabled. 

Conner’s inex­pe­ri­enced tri­al attor­ney failed to present any evi­dence at tri­al or in the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing and his appel­late lawyer was not pro­vid­ed any resources to inves­ti­gate his case. As a result, his lawyers said, nei­ther the jury nor the state appel­late courts heard any mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence of his intel­lec­tu­al impair­ments and hor­ri­fy­ing upbring­ing, which they say might have changed the jury’s sentencing decision. 

Though a fed­er­al court lat­er ruled that his evi­dence of intel­lec­tu­al impair­ment did not reach the lev­el of dis­abil­i­ty that would ren­der him inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion, his lawyers argued that the court did not con­sid­er the mit­i­gat­ing aspects of his intel­lec­tu­al impair­ments or whether ​“Mr. Conner’s poverty‑, violence‑, and trau­ma-filled fam­i­ly back­ground … should have jus­ti­fied a sen­tence less than death.” 

On July 12, the Georgia Supreme Court declined to review Conner’s claim that his exe­cu­tion more than 34 years after being sen­tenced to death con­sti­tutes cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment and vot­ed 5 – 2 to deny him a stay of execution. 

[UPDATE: Georgia exe­cut­ed Conner short­ly after mid­night on July 15. It was the sixth exe­cu­tion con­duct­ed by the state in 2016, more than in any pre­vi­ous cal­en­dar year since exe­cu­tions were allowed to resume in 1976.]