Convicted murderer executed for 1988 killing

A man convicted of brutally murdering a 27-year-old woman in 1988 was executed on Tuesday, more than 20 years after he was sentenced to death.

Emmanuel Hammond was executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

In an effort to postpone the execution, Hammond’s lawyers questioned the source of one of the drugs used in carrying out the death sentence. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ordered Hammond’s execution be stayed, but a short time later, the high court declined to intervene and Hammond’s execution proceeded.

Hammond was sentenced to death in 1990 for the 1988 murder of 27-year old Julie Love in Fulton County. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973, 48 men have been executed in Georgia; Hammond was the 26th inmate put to death by lethal injection in Georgia.

On Monday, a Fulton County judge denied Hammond’s request for a stay of execution. On Friday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Hammond’s request for clemency.

Hammond did not make a statement prior to being executed, The Associated Press reported.