ATLANTA - The State Board of Pardons and Paroles met on April 11, 2016, with representatives for condemned inmate Kenneth Fults. The meeting was held to consider a request for clemency for Fults. The Board’s decision is to deny clemency.

On May 19, 1997, Fults pled guilty to the 1996 murder of Cathy Bounds. Fults pled guilty to malice murder, felony murder, burglary, kidnapping with bodily injury and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Following a sentencing trial, the jury recommended a death sentence for Fults.

Kenneth Fults’ direct appeal proceedings and his state and federal habeas corpus proceedings have been concluded. The United States Supreme Court denied Fults’ request to appeal on October 5, 2015. The Spalding County Superior Court issued the execution order.

In reaching its decision to deny clemency in this case, in addition to information received during today’s meeting, the Parole Board reviewed all case materials from the comprehensive parole file of Fults. The file includes the history of the life of the condemned inmate, the inmate’s criminal history and the circumstances of the offense that was committed resulting in the death sentence. In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to commute, or reduce, a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. 

Fults is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

For more information please contact Steve Hayes, Director of the Office of Communications, at 404-657-9450 or [email protected] or visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov.

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