Parole Board Sets Appointment for Blankenship's Representatives
June 10, 2011;
Atlanta, GA - As a result of an execution date being set for June 23, 2011 for Roy
Willard Blankenship, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has set an appointment to hear
arguments from his attorneys based on new information or additional evidence obtained in the case.
The appointment is scheduled for Monday, June 13, 2011, at State Offices South on the Tift Campus
in Forsyth. The appointment is set for 10 a.m.
In February, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a stay of execution of the
sentence of death for Roy Willard Blankenship. The purpose for the stay was to allow for additional
time to examine the substance of claims offered by Blankenship’s representatives at the February 3,
2011, clemency appointment and 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.
The Parole Board is the sole authority in Georgia for granting clemency to inmates. The
Board may commute a death sentence to life without parole, to life or deny
clemency.
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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