Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court delayed the execution of a death row inmate in a 6-0 ruling for sixty-eight-year-old Virgil Delano Presnell, Jr. who was sentenced to death for the murder of  eight-year-old Lori Ann Smith and the rape of her ten-year-old friend after abducting them in May 1976 as they walked home from school in Cobb County.

The Federal Defender Program, which represents Presnell, alleged the state and Attorney General Chris Carr “breached a contract governing the resumption of the execution of death sentences in Georgia after the COVID-19 pandemic.” The state argued a trial court should not have denied its motion to dismiss the Federal Defender Program’s motion based on sovereign immunity. State attorneys also argued a court should not have granted the defense’s emergency restraining order, which prevented the state from seeking execution.

It’s not the first time Presnell’s legal team has bought him more time. A judge halted Presnell’s execution in May after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for Presnell after “thoroughly considering all the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Presnell was convicted in August 1976 on charges including malice murder, kidnapping and rape, and was sentenced to die. His death sentence was overturned in 1992, but was reinstated in March 1999.

Fox 5 / GNN