ATLANTA — Georgia's highest court has temporarily halted an execution that was scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Ray Jefferson Cromartie faces a lethal injection for the April 1994 slaying of Richard Slysz at a convenience store in Thomasville.
The Georgia Supreme Court has temporarily stayed the execution to resolve whether the execution order is void because a trial court judge filed it while Cromartie still had an appeal pending with the Supreme Court.
The high court asked lawyers for the state and for Cromartie to file briefs on the issue by Monday.
Cromartie was sentenced to death after being convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, armed robbery and four counts of possession of a firearm for the 1994 murder of 50-year-old store clerk Richard Slysz. He maintains that he is innocent, and did not request a commutation.
Cromartie borrowed a handgun from his cousin on April 7, 1994, and that night walked into the Madison Street Deli in Thomasville, Georgia and shot clerk Dan Wilson in the face, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case. He left the store after trying unsuccessfully to open the cash register, the summary says.
Wilson suffered a severed carotid artery but survived. He was unable to describe the person who shot him, and footage from a surveillance camera wasn't clear enough to conclusively identify Cromartie.
But Cromartie asked some friends the next day if they'd seen the news and told one that he'd shot the clerk while he was washing dishes in the back, the summary says.
A few days later, on April 10, 1994, Cromartie and Corey Clark asked Thaddeus Lucas to drive them to a different store to steal beer, the summary says. Lucas parked on a nearby street and waited while the other two entered the Junior Food Store.
Cromartie shot Slysz twice in the head after they entered the store, the summary says. Cromartie and Clark were unable to open the cash register and fled after Cromartie grabbed two 12-packs of beer.
A friend testified that when Cromartie and the others returned to an apartment complex, Cromartie bragged about shooting the clerk, the summary says.
Cromartie was arrested three days later. Lucas and Clark both testified against him at his trial in September 1997. A jury found Cromartie guilty of charges including malice murder, armed robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and gun charges, and sentenced him to die.
Lucas and Clark both pleaded guilty to lesser charges, served prison time and were released.
Cromartie has maintained that he did not shoot either Wilson or Slysz. His convictions depended heavily on statements made by people who later recanted or had strong personal motivations to lie, his lawyers wrote in a motion filed in December.
DNA testing on the evidence recovered at the scenes of the two shootings could prove he didn't shoot either man and could reveal who did, his lawyers argued.
"An execution cannot proceed with so much doubt and uncertainty about actual culpability," Shawn Nolan, an attorney for Cromartie, said in an emailed statement after the execution date was announced. "Public confidence in the justice system and the victim's family will be served best by staying Mr. Cromartie's scheduled execution and testing the available evidence."
Cromartie's brother, Anthony, told 11Alive earlier this month that even if his younger brother is put to death, he won't give up.
"I have to fight for him. I'm the big brother. I got to make it happen, no matter what I need to do or how I need to do it," he said. "I need to make it happen for him."
The US Supreme Court denied Cromartie's appeal last December 2018. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Oct. 30, 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Cromartie would be the third prisoner executed in Georgia this year.
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