The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board commuted Samuel Crowe’s death sentence to life without parole just two and a half hours before his scheduled execution on May 22, 2008. The five-member Board’s statement said, “After careful and exhaustive consideration of the request, the board voted to grant clemency.” The Board had heard from several people who knew Crowe, including pastors and a former corrections officer, who said, “I felt like if they released him that morning he would never get in any more trouble and he could make a contribution to society,” and called him a “peacemaker” amongst prison inmates. Crowe’s attorney, Ann Fort, commented, “He deeply regrets what he did,” and that at the time of the crime Crowe was “in the throes of a terrible drug addiction. He has worked hard every day to in some way to atone for what he did.” This is just the third time out of 24 requests since 1995 that the Board commuted a death sentence.

(R. Cook, “Georgia Murder’s Execution Halted at Last Minute,”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 22, 2008). See Clemency. There have been 242 commutations of death sentences since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. This is the second commutation in 2008. There have been 7 commutations in Georgia since 1976. View video-discussion from Moblogic.tv with Samuel Crowe’s defense attorneys after the commutation.