Georgia set to execute two men in coming weeks
Joshua Daniel Bishop (left) and Kenneth E. Fults (right)
ATLANTA — The state of Georgia is set to execute two men in the coming weeks, state officials announced.
Joshua Daniel Bishop, 41, is set to be executed March 31 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., for the June 1994 slaying of 43-year-old Leverett Lewis Morrison.
According to prosecutors, Morrison drove Bishop and Mark Braxley, to a bar, and Bishop and Braxley decided to steal Morrison’s car. After leaving the bar, the trio returned to Braxley’s trailer.
Later, while Morrison was sleeping, Bishop reached into his pocket. Morrison woke up, and Bishop began to beat Morrison about the head and face with a blunt object, killing him, prosecutors said.
Bishop and Braxley then used Morrison’s car to take the body to a nearby dumpster. After unsuccessfully attempting to throw Morrison’s body into the dumpster, Bishop and Braxley left the body on the ground where it was discovered several hours later; the duo then set Morrison’s car on fire in nearby woods.
Braxley, 57, pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison, The Telegraph of Macon, Ga., reported. A murder charge against him was dropped as a result of a plea deal.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Earl Fults faces an April 12 execution date for the murder of Cathy Bounds. Fults was convicted in Spalding County in 1997.
According to prosecutors, the murder capped a week-long crime spree for Fults that partially centered on his desire to murder a man in a relationship with his former girlfriend. Prosecutors say the spree began when Fults committed a pair of burglaries and stole several handguns.
After he unsuccessfully tried to murder his former girlfriend’s new boyfriend with one of the handguns, Fults burglarized the home of his next-door neighbors. After a man in the house left for work, Fults broke in, brandished a stolen .22 caliber handgun and shot Bounds five times in the back of the head.
If executed, Bishop will be the 40th inmate put to death by lethal injection in Georgia. Fults would be the 41st inmate put to death by lethal injection in the state.
