Georgia inmate refused sedatives before lethal injection, officials say

Robert Wayne Holsey was executed in Georgia on Tuesday night for the 1997 murder of a sheriff’s deputy.

Holsey died at 10:51 p.m. after a lethal injection, Gwendolyn Hogan, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, told The Times.

Holsey refused sedatives offered before the execution, which is an option, Hogan said.

“They are to help relax,” she said.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution of Holsey; making its ruling Tuesday afternoon.

Only Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor voted in favor of staying the execution.

Holsey’s current lawyer argued his client had a mental disability and that his trial lawyer admitted to being an alcoholic who was drunk on vodka during proceedings.

Georgia requires that a mental disability be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The state disputed that Holsey’s IQ of 70 constituted a disability under the law.

Holsey apologized for his crime before his sentence was carried out, Hogan said.

Holsey’s was the second execution the court chose not to block Tuesday.

Paul Goodwin was executed in Missouri on Wednesday at 1:17 a.m. local time, according to Mike O’Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Goodwin’s attorney also argued that his client has a mental disability that should preclude him from the death penalty.

Goodwin was convicted of beating a woman to death with a hammer inside her home in 1998.

“Paul Goodwin invaded the home of Joan Crotts, a widow, and brutally killed her,” Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statment following the execution. “While her family’s feelings of loss will never end, at least they know her killer has paid the price for his actions.”

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