Georgia Parole Board Grants 2004’s First Clemency

Just one day before Georgia was sched­uled to exe­cute Willie James Hall, the state’s parole board com­mut­ed his sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole. During the hear­ing on Hall’s request for clemen­cy, 6 of the jurors from his orig­i­nal tri­al tes­ti­fied that they would have giv­en Hall life with­out parole if that sen­tence had been an option at his tri­al. In addi­tion, the parole board not­ed that Hall had excel­lent behav­ior in prison and no crim­i­nal record before the mur­der. In 2001, a fed­er­al judge in Atlanta threw out Hall’s death sen­tence after find­ing that his lawyers did not pre­pare for the sen­tenc­ing phase of the case, but the sen­tence was rein­stat­ed by a fed­er­al appeals court in Atlanta. (Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 26, 2004) See Clemency; Life Without Parole.