Lawyer says Georgia man set for execution should be spared
By KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — The lawyer for a Georgia man scheduled to be executed next week says her client has significant cognitive impairments that likely contributed to his crimes and has suffered horrific abuse in prison. She argues that means his life should be spared. Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. killed an 8-year-old girl and raped her 10-year-old friend after abducting them as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, on May 4, 1976. He is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. The five-member parole board, which is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence, has scheduled a closed-door clemency hearing Monday to consider his case.