On June 4, Georgia has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of Curtis Osborne. (UPDATE: Osborne was exe­cut­ed on June 4.) Osborne’s own defense lawyer at tri­al was racial­ly biased against him and failed to do the most basic inves­ti­ga­tion that might have saved his clien­t’s life. The attor­ney repeat­ed­ly referred to Osborne with a racial epi­thet, say­ing, ​“that lit­tle n_​_​_​_​r deserves the chair.”

At the time of the mur­der that sent Osborne to death row, he was suf­fer­ing from men­tal prob­lems and his fam­i­ly had a his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness going back for 3 gen­er­a­tions. However, Osborne’s attor­ney failed to raise this issue.

Law enforce­ment offi­cials and reli­gious lead­ers who have come to know Curtis Osborne have not­ed his com­plete remorse for the crime and the dra­mat­ic changes in his life while on death row. His sto­ry is recount­ed in a video pre­pared by his cur­rent defense attor­neys. (Posted May 28, 2008).

View the video with Windows Media Player. View the video in QuickTime.

Former President Jimmy Carter has expressed his sup­port for a com­mu­ta­tion of Osborne’s death sen­tence. See also a let­ter for com­mu­ta­tion from the for­mer Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Norman S. Fletcher, who reviewed Osborne’s case while on the court. Civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia also sup­ports a com­mu­ta­tion for Osborne. See Representation

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