Warrant for execution expires
Families of victims ‘deeply upset and disappointed’ after 46 years of grief
ATLANTA — The families of two young girls who were abducted and attacked 46 years ago by a Georgia man who was scheduled to be put to death last week say they are “deeply upset and disappointed” that the execution was halted by a judge and the death warrant was allowed to expire Tuesday.
Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., 68, had been scheduled to die May 17. He killed 8-year-old Lori Ann Smith and raped her 10-year-old friend after abducting them in May 1976 as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta.
“These families have suffered this trauma repeatedly and waited patiently for 46 years for closure,” the families said in a joint statement provided exclusively to The Associated Press. “They have remained quiet over these past 46 years but now they feel it is time to speak out about the frustration and anger they have endured during the long judicial process.”
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.
At an emergency hearing held
May 16, the day before Presnell was scheduled to receive a lethal injection, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams issued an order temporarily blocking the state from proceeding with the execution.
The state appealed her order the next day but the Georgia Supreme Court did not immediately rule on that appeal. The stay remains in effect and the execution warrant that had been valid for seven days expired at noon on Tuesday.
Lisa Smith, Lori’s older sister, said Presnell caused her family so much damage and “it has been slow and painful waiting for his day to finally come.” She told the State Board of Pardons and Paroles during a closed-door hearing last week that “Presnell needs to be put to death, we have all waited long enough.”
“Presnell has left wounds that will never heal,” she said in her statement to the parole board.