Parole Board Denies Clemency for Blankenship
June 13, 2011;
Atlanta, GA - Earlier today, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles met to
consider a clemency request from attorneys representing condemned inmate Roy Willard Blankenship.
After considering the request, the Board voted to deny clemency.
Today’s decision followed the Board’s action in February, when it granted a stay of execution in
order to provide for additional time to examine the substance of claims offered by Blankenship’s
attorneys and to consider any additional evidence that became available.
Roy W. Blankenship was found guilty in April of 1980 of burglary, murder and rape in the death
of 78 year old Sarah Mims Bowen of Savannah. The court sentenced Blankenship to death and also
sentenced him to two 20-year sentences for the burglary and rape, to run consecutive to the death
sentence, but concurrent to each other. Blankenship confessed upon his arrest.
Blankenship’s death penalty was subsequently overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. A
second sentencing trial took place in 1982 and again Blankenship testified and was again sentenced
to death. The Georgia Supreme Court upon direct appeal again considered the case and vacated
the death sentence. A third sentencing trial took place in June 1986. Blankenship again
testified and the jury recommended the death sentence be imposed and the court agreed. Upon
direct appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court found no error in the latest proceedings and affirmed the
death sentence.
Blankenship is scheduled to die by lethal injection June 23, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson,
Georgia.
click on GDC Inmate Query, agree to the terms on the disclaimer page, and enter
the offender’s
EF number, 130375.
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