UPDATE 1/29/2020 at 9am EST: Clemency Denied. Also, 600+ petition signatures were delivered to the parole board yesterday morning before the hearing. Those plus any additional signatures will be delivered to Governor Kemp on today after 12pm. Please sign this petition and then call Governor Kemp's office at 404-656-1776 to urge him to stop this execution so that DNA testing may be conducted - per the request of the children of Sabrina Lance, one of the victims in the case. If you get a live operator and that person offers to transfer you to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, politely decline and ask to leave a message for the governor.

PLEASE NOTE: Similar to Texas, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has to act in order for any relief to be granted on an executive level, although it would appear that unlike in Texas, the Board has final authority. This is intended to give a level of inoculation to the Governor. However, the members of the board are appointed by the governor, so while there is the appearance of the board being nonpolitical, it is anything but. This is why the language of our petition asks the Governor to "find a path to clemency." IF he wants it, it is possible. We recognize that action taken today is symbolic, and we are also hopeful that the courts may still act to stop this execution. Because our ethic is one of action toward creating justice and upholding the value that Government should not be in the business of taking life, our goal in a state like Georgia is mobilizing people to build and demonstrate power in the long-term, and in the mean time, to be an unswappable mosquito in an appropriate and loving way. --DeathPenaltyAction.org

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Georgia has set an execution date of January 29 for Donnie Cleveland Lance, who was convicted in the 1997 murders of Sabrina "Joy" Lance and Dwight "Butch" Wood Jr. More information about this case can be found here.

This will be Georgia's 53rd person to be put to death by lethal injection. Georgia is 1 of 8 states that still actively use the death penalty while the majority of states are abandoning this practice. Issues of concern include:

-No witnesses or murder weapons have been found

-Courts have denied requests to DNA test the evidence found - even the children of the victim have asked that DNA testing be done.

-There is no blood or other physical evidence linking Lance to the murders

-A judge tossed out his death sentence in April 2009, finding that Lance’s trial lawyer had failed to investigate and present evidence of Lance’s mental health history during the sentencing phase of his trial. The judge found that evidence of Lance’s mental impairment from brain injuries caused by car wrecks, a gunshot wound and alcoholism could have convinced the jury to spare his life.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Brian Kemp and the GA Board of Pardons to do anything in their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay and seeking a path to clemency in this case.