ATLANTA — A man convicted in the 1993 murders of his parents and sister faces a Wednesday execution.
However, lawyers for Andrew Grant DeYoung contend one of the drugs the state is planning on using during the execution — an alternative to sodium thiopental — could lead to pain, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. A judge ordered that the exeuction be videotaped, the newspaper reported.
DeYoung was convicted in Cobb County of the June 14, 1993, murders of his parents — Kathryn and Gary DeYoung — and his 14-year-old sister, Sarah DeYoung. Prosecutors say DeYoung killed his parents in order to receive an inheritance from their estate.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied clemency for DeYoung. An accomplice — David Michael Hagerty — pleaded guilty to three counts of malice murder; he is currently serving life in prison.
If executed, he will be the 28th inmate put to death by lethal injection in Georgia; 50 men have been executed in the Peach State since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973.
Media witnesses for the execution are Shannon McCaffrey of The Associated Press, Jim Burress of WABE-FM (NPR), Jon Gillooly of the Marietta Daily Journal and Rhonda Cook of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
For his last meal, DeYoung requested pizza, bread sticks, all fruit strawberry preserves, concord grape juice and vanilla ice cream, according to the state Department of Corrections.
