Georgia has carried out its eighth execution of 2016, putting to death a man who told a psychiatrist he didn’t really want to die but also didn’t want to continue living in prison.
Warden Eric Sellers told witnesses Steven Frederick Spears’ time of death was 7:30 p.m. Wednesday following an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. Spears, 54, was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Spears did not make a final statement and declined to have a prayer read. Within minutes of the lethal drug beginning to flow, he took several deep breaths and swallowed a few times before becoming still.
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