Georgia death row inmate requests pizza, 20 buffalo wings and apple pie for last meal as clemency bid gets denied
A death row prisoner, who is set to be executed on Thursday, June 20, has reportedly requested a high-calorie meal even as a last attempt to save his life was thwarted. The State Board of Pardons and Parole, in a statement on Wednesday, June 19, denied Marion Wilson Jr's clemency petition.
Wilson was convicted for the murder of off-duty prison guard Donovan Parks in March 1996 and the Superior Court of Baldwin County ordered his execution by lethal injection, scheduled for June 20, 2019, at 7 pm at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
The 42-year-old, for his final meal, has reportedly asked for a medium thin-crust pizza with everything on it, 20 buffalo wings, a pint of butter pecan ice cream, apple pie and grape juice. The convicted killer had also launched a last-minute bid to halt his execution by extending a clemency request.
According to authorities, gang members Wilson and Robert Earl Butts Jr shot and killed 24-year-old Parks at close range outside a Walmart in the US city of Milledgeville, Georgia, after he agreed to give them a ride. Parks, who was leaving from Bible study, was ordered to get out of the car and was shot in the back of his head as he lay down on the ground. He had reportedly dreamed of becoming a prison counselor one day.
Wilson and Butts, at their trial, denied firing the fatal gunshot and accused each other of pulling the trigger. According to prosecutors, the duo reportedly killed Parks to achieve a higher status within their gang, according to a Mirror report. The prosecution claimed that Wilson had grabbed Parks' necktie from the back seat as Butts fired the fatal shot from a shotgun. The pair then stole his car and left him for dead as he lay bleeding on the ground. Butts was also convicted of murder in the case and was sentenced to death.
Reports state that he was executed in May 2018 by lethal injection, and during the procedure, he groaned and said: "It burns, man" while he was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. When he was asked for his final statement, Butt, while keeping his eyes closed, said: "I've been drinking caffeine all day."
Wilson, who was 19 at the time of the murder, was convicted in Baldwin County of murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. He is now 42-years-old.
Wilson's attorneys, in their last attempt to save his life, had argued that there was no credible evidence that he killed or planned to kill Parks, and that his youth record and gang affiliation were exaggerated by the prosecutor to support the argument that Wilson "was worthy of execution". Wilson is now set to be the second Georgia prisoner to be executed in 2019.