John Wayne Conner Executed in Georgia

John Wayne Conner, convicted of beating a friend to death with a stick in 1982, became the sixth Georgia inmate put to death this year early Friday.

Conner, 60, died by lethal injection at 12:29 a.m. at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, the Georgia Department of Corrections announced.

The execution set a new record for Georgia. The state had never executed more than five people in a year in the 40 years since the death penalty was reinstated.

Conner refused a final prayer and did not give a final statement.

His execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. but was postponed while state and federal courts gave his case a final review.

Conner was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of James T. White in Telfair County.

According to testimony, Conner, White and Conner's girlfriend had gone to a party in Eastman. After returning to Conner's house, Conner, then 25, and White, 29, walked to a neighbor's home to ask, unsuccessfully, for a ride to a liquor store.

While walking back to Conner's house, Conner claims, White made a comment about wanting to have sex with Conner's girlfriend. The men fought, and Conner hit White first with a liquor bottle then with a stick he found.

After returning home, Conner told his girlfriend he may have killed White but that they needed to go back and make sure. The girlfriend testified that when they went back to the scene of the fight, she heard a thud, then Conner returned and told her White was dead.

The couple were arrested the next day in Butts County.

In their application to the state pardons and paroles board, Conner's lawyers had argued that during his 34 years in prison, Conner "has transformed himself from a violent young man with severe substance abuse problems into a peaceful and productive member of the prison community."

They argued that Conner grew up in impoverished conditions in a home "where vicious physical assaults, incest, sexual abuse and alcoholism were the norm" and that he has been denied a proper mental health evaluation.

His upbringing and mental capacity never were considered by a jury, which could have opted for a different sentence than death, lawyers argued.

For his last meal, Conner requested 10 pieces of fried catfish, 10 hush puppies, two triple deluxe hamburgers with bacon, two pints of vanilla ice cream and one sliced raw onion.

Georgia has executed five inmates in a year twice — last year and in 1987.

There have been 65 men and one woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Conner was the 43rd inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 61 men on death row in Georgia.