Charging Conflict of Interest, Killer Boycotts Clemency Board

With possibly one day left to live and the chance for mercy hinging on a final meeting of the parole board, condemned killer Byron Ashley Parker took a big chance Monday: He stood up the board.

Instead of making a case about how he was a remorseful, reformed man--not the same person who strangled a little girl more than 17 years ago--Parker and his lawyers unexpectedly boycotted a clemency hearing, calling the process “a sham.”

Three of the five parole board members are under investigation--two on corruption allegations, one on suspicion of sexual harassment--and Parker’s lawyers say it’s a conflict of interest for them to decide clemency requests.

“What if board members want to curry favor with the state, which is investigating them, by voting to deny our client clemency?” lawyer Jeff Ertel asked. “Is this fair?”

It was the first time a Georgia death row inmate skipped an eleventh-hour clemency hearing, state officials said. Parker’s lawyers have filed a last round of appeals, but unless the U.S. 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Parker, 41, will be executed tonight by injection.

Parole officials called the tactic “inconsiderate” and said there was no conflict of interest.

“There are tons of people all across government under investigation by the attorney general’s office,” said Kathy Browning, spokeswoman for the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. “If we took them all out, we would never get anything done. And besides, the investigations in question have nothing to do with the clemency hearing.”

Walter S. Ray, chairman of the parole board, which hears clemency requests, is under suspicion of lobbying state lawmakers on behalf of a private probation company. Ray, 59, worked as a consultant for Detention Management Services while he served as chairman of the parole board, a position appointed by the governor that pays $111,000 a year.

It is a felony to use a public position to lobby for a private company, and agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and state attorney general’s office have been investigating Ray since August.

A second member of the parole board, Bobby Whitworth, is under investigation on a similar set of allegations.

And Gene Walker, a former state senator who also sits on the parole board, was accused recently by his secretary of making inappropriate sexual comments and unwanted advances. If that case goes to court, as expected, the attorney general’s office will represent Walker, because he is a state official being sued in an official capacity.

“This is just good ol’ boy politics,” said Parker, who answered several questions Monday from death row through his lawyer. “And even if I’m not around any more, maybe my struggle will help others. That’s all I can hope for now.”

Essentially, Parker’s conflict-of-interest argument is this: the parole board is in an awkward spot with the attorney general’s office because the board has to rule on a clemency request while the attorney general’s office is investigating two members and possibly representing a third.

Though the attorney general’s office does not have a direct role in clemency hearings, it defends the state during the execution process and has a vested interest in carrying out the death sentence, Parker’s lawyers said.

Parker’s team claims the three board members have “self-motivated reasons” to side with the attorney general’s office and should be replaced by three new people, who then would decide if Parker deserves to have his sentence commuted to life in prison. Attorneys for the parole board said the panel votes in secret, making it impossible for members to curry favor with anyone.

Two other death row inmates raised similar conflict-of-interest concerns earlier this year. Federal judges denied their claims and the inmates were executed. During those cases, though, two, not three, of the five parole board members were under investigation.

Since 1976, six Georgia inmates have been granted clemency and 26 have been executed. More than 120 remain on death row.

Parker strangled 11-year-old Christie Ann Griffith in rural Douglas County in June 1984. There was never any doubt about his guilt. He confessed to police and drew officers a map of where to find her body.

In prison, Parker was a model inmate, his lawyers said, becoming the first man to earn a high school equivalency certificate while on death row.

He has written sheaves of poems, short stories and even plays, which have won the affection of writers and artists nationwide.

On Monday, a small group of supporters gathered in downtown Atlanta to make one last plea. And seven of the 12 jurors from the original murder case signed statements saying they would have sentenced Parker to life in prison without parole, not death, if that had been an option.

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Times researcher Edith Stanley contributed to this report.