Georgia Killer Executed; Court Rejected Appeal

William Boyd Tucker, convicted of killing a pregnant newlywed 10 years ago, was put to death Friday in Georgia’s electric chair.

Tucker was pronounced dead at 7:29 p.m., Fred Steeple, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said.

Earlier Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court had voted 6 to 3 to reject a formal appeal aimed at overturning Tucker’s conviction and death sentence.

Tucker, 31, was found guilty of the 1977 murder of 19-year-old Kathleen Parry during a convenience store robbery in Columbus.

He was the seventh person to be executed this year in the United States and the 75th since the death penalty was restored in 1976.

Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Thurgood Marshall and Harry A. Blackmun voted to spare him. In an opinion for all three, Brennan said there was a question as to whether the judge’s instructions to the jury at Tucker’s trial unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof to the defendant.

Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., acting only two hours before Tucker was to have been executed Thursday, had granted him a 24-hour stay of execution so the full court could study the appeal.

Tucker originally had been scheduled to die Wednesday but was granted a 24-hour stay by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to give his lawyers time to appeal to the Supreme Court.