A Georgia man convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend shouldn’t be executed, his lawyers argue, citing the additional pain it will cause his children, evidence of brain damage not heard by the jury that sentenced him to die and his model behavior in prison.
Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Wednesday. He was convicted and sentenced to die for the November 1997 killings of Sabrina “Joy” Lance and Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. in Jackson County, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta.
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence, plans to hold a closed-door clemency hearing Tuesday. The board on Monday declassified a clemency application filed by Lance’s lawyers.
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