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Donnie Cleveland Lance Bio – Wiki
A Georgia man convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than two decades ago is scheduled to be executed Wednesday.Donnie Cleveland Lance is set to get a deadly infusion at the state jail in Jackson for the November 1997 killings of Sabrina “Satisfaction” Lance and Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. in Jackson County, around 60 miles upper east of Atlanta.
Donnie Cleveland Lance Age
He is 66 years old.
Killing his Ex-Wife and Her Boyfriend
A Georgia man indicted for killing his ex and her beau over two decades back was executed Wednesday, turning into the state’s first detainee executed for the current year. Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, got a deadly infusion at the state jail in Jackson and was articulated dead at 9:05 p.m., the Georgia lawyer general’s office said in an announcement.
Spear said nothing whenever he was allowed to offer a last expression and declined to have a cleric state a petition. Tied to a gurney, he lay for the most part still yet squirmed his feet.
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The superintendent left the execution chamber at 8:54 p.m. Records from past executions show that the deadly medication for the most part starts streaming inside a moment or two of the superintendent’s exit. Spear took around twelve full breaths and afterward turned out to be totally still around three minutes after the superintendent left.
Spear had been condemned to death for the killings of Sabrina “Bliss” Lance and Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. The two were killed on November 8, 1997, at Wood’s home in Jackson County, around 60 miles upper east of Atlanta.
Spear went to the home, kicked in the front entryway and shot Wood in the front and back with a shotgun and afterward beat Joy Lance to death with the handle of the shotgun, as per a Georgia Supreme Court rundown of the case.
Spear had reliably said he didn’t slaughter the pair.
Investigation Report
On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court denied defense requests to step in and block the execution. The court gave no explanation in its emailed statement for its decision.
Authorities have previously said there were no witnesses and that no murder weapon was ever found. Lance’s lawyers have argued that no blood or other physical evidence linked him to the killings but that investigators focused only on him from the start. Lawyers for the state have argued in court filings that the evidence against Lance, “although circumstantial, was overwhelming.”
Prosecutors had argued that Lance had long abused his ex-wife, both during their marriage and after their divorce, and had threatened multiple times to kill her. His lawyers wrote in a clemency application that the two had a troubled relationship and that “alcohol abuse was a significant factor in a history of mutual aggression.”
Lance’s lawyers have sought DNA testing on various pieces of evidence, arguing that the testing could rule Lance out as the killer and could reveal the person responsible.
In September, a judge declined a request for DNA testing and a new trial. The judge said that in light of all the evidence presented at trial it’s unlikely the jury would have reached a different verdict if DNA results had been available. The Georgia Supreme Court declined to take the case.
Separately, Lance’s lawyers filed a petition last month in Butts County Superior Court alleging that the prosecutor improperly packed the grand jury with people he knew would side with him. Because the grand jury was not randomly selected, Lance’s lawyers argued, the death sentence was invalid and unconstitutional.
Lawyers for the state countered that those arguments have been previously raised and were rejected by the court. A judge agreed with the state and rejected the petition last week. The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal or to stop Lance’s execution, and his attorneys then unsuccessfully asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles held a closed-door hearing Tuesday and denied a defense request to spare Lance’s life. The board is the only authority in Georgia with the power to commute a death sentence.
In seeking clemency, Lance’s lawyers had argued that Joy and Donnie Lance’s now-adult son and daughter already lost their mother and would suffer even more if their father was executed.
“We’ve spent our whole lives with this huge gaping hole in our hearts, but at least we’ve had dad at our sides,” Stephanie Lance Cape and Jessie Lance had written to the parole board. “It’s almost impossible to imagine that it could get worse.”
Prison officials said Lance received visits Wednesday from 15 family members, one friend and three attorneys.