Board Rejects Appeal To Spare Alday Killer Carl Issacs

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied an appeal Friday to commute the decades-old death sentence of Carl Isaacs, the nation's longest-serving death row inmate.

Isaacs, 49, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday for orchestrating the slaughter of six members of the Alday family in their home during a burglary in 1973.

There were no extraordinary circumstances that would have justified commuting Isaacs' sentence, said Heather Hedrick, spokeswoman for the board.

"Carl Isaacs needs to be executed," said Susan Chambliss, whose grandfather Ned Alday was killed when she was 8 years old. "Nothing should stand in the way of this happening. We've waited 30 years for this."

A lawyer had argued that Isaacs should not be executed because he was abused as a child, he has cancer and is a changed man.

"As are all of us, he is far from perfect, but he is not the devil," attorney Jack Martin wrote the board. Isaacs is "not the same hotheaded person he was when he was 19."

The five-member board held a private hearing to consider Isaacs' request. They later met with the victims' family.

The Aldays, a family of farmers in rural southwest Georgia, were shot to death as they arrived home for lunch at their trailer. Ned Alday was gunned down along with three sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who was also raped before being killed. Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome murders in the state's history.

"He's not even a human being," said Paige Seagraves, another of Ned Alday's granddaughters. "If I had something to say to him, it would be 'May God have mercy on your soul because you had no mercy on my family."'

Three other men also were convicted in the murders. Two are serving life sentences; the third was released from prison in 1993.

In his application for clemency, Martin contends that Isaacs is not the same man today as the 19-year-old killer. Martin's petition described Isaacs as the product of an abusive, neglected childhood who was gang raped by other inmates in a riot at the Maryland State Prison less than two months before the Alday murders.

"The Carl Isaacs who is about to be executed is "obviously not the same damaged, out of control youth who committed awful crimes at the age of 19.

"He is older, wiser, worn down by 30 years of harsh imprisonment, and is no longer a threat to anyone," Martin's appeal for clemency stated.

"He has been diagnosed with cancer and his bladder has been removed. He has to wear a colostomy bag," Martin added.

Isaacs' illness is not by itself a reason for clemency, the attorney argues, but "there is a something unsettling and unseemly about executing a man who may well be terminally ill."

Martin's petition also argues that it is "fundamentally unfair...to single out one offender for a death sentence while others who are equally or more culpable for the same crime are sentenced to life."

Isaacs, Coleman and Dungee initially were convicted and sentenced to death in brief separate trials in January 1974 by Seminole County Superior Court juries, largely on the eyewitness testimony of Carl Isaacs' 15-year-old brother, Billy.

Their convictions and death sentences were overturned in 1985 by a federal appellate court and the were granted new trials. The court said pretrial publicity prejudiced the Seminole jurors and that the trials should have been held in another jurisdiction.

Isaacs, who prosecutors contend has boasted of being the ringleader, was convicted and sentenced again to death in a 1988 retrial in Houston County.

Coleman was convicted the same year by a DeKalb County jury and was sentenced to life without parole. Dungee, who is borderline mentally retarded, later entered a guilty pleas to six counts of murder and was sentences to life in prison.

I don't remember all the details, but Charles Postell, a writer for The ALbany (Ga.) Herald, wrote a book about the Alday murders. I seem to remember that Postell was indicted/convicted for aiding and abetting Carl Isaacs in an escape attempt.

The following article is from The Donalsonville News, May 1, 2003.

He's Scheduled to be Deceased Tuesday at 7

Carl Isaacs' date with death holding with five days left

The Houston County Superior Court of Perry has ordered the execution of convicted murderer Carl Isaacs, Jr., age 49, and so far as The News can tell at this point, no interruptions or delays have occurred yet, while well aware that this subject is a master of stymieing and aborting such court orders and schedules.

The Georgia court where Isaacs' second trial for six counts of murder was held 15 years ago received word of the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear Isaacs' latest appeal the first of last week and Judge George Nunn promptly moved and set an execution date and time.

On April 22, the court was instructed to order the execution of Isaacs by lethal injection between high noon on Tuesday, May 6, 2003 and ending seven days later also at noon on Tuesday, May 13, 2003. Judge Nunn immediately scheduled the sentences of guilty of six cruel murders of innocent people to be carried to completion at 7 pm on Next Tuesday, May 5, 2003at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Butts County.

Isaacs was sentenced to death for the May 14, 1973 slayings of six members of the Ned Alday family at their home near Donalsonville. The original death sentences issued here in January 1974 were overturned on appeal. Isaacs was retried in January 1988 and again sentenced to death.

Isaacs, George Dundee and Wayne Coleman who had escaped from a Maryland prison, murdered Ned Alday, Jimmy Alday, Jerry Alday, Chester Alday, Aubrey ALday and Mary Alday. Isaacs' younger brother, Billy Isaacs, also present during the murders, was sentenced to 20 years for armed robbery and 20 years for burglary. Billy Isaacs was released from prison in 1993. Dungee and Coleman, originally sentenced to death, were later resentenced and are currently serving life sentences.

If nothing happens to change the schedule, if Isaacs has finally exhausted his bag of tricks and schemes to avoid his date with death, he would become the 10th subject put to death by lethal injection in Georgia. This method of death was adopted by the Georgia Legislature several years ago, after opponents of the death penalty were victorious in their battle against Old Sparky, aka the electric chair.

Witnesses will be at the prison to see to it that the monster is finally moved to his proper destination, including several from this county where his first trial was held, only to be thrown out by a fumbling 11th circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 1985. The News will be among the news disseminators attending the execution in order to share it with the people of its coverage area, naturally including members of the Alday family.

Spelling and other errors are mine. Despite the tone of this article, The News took great care in 1973-74 to report the facts and the facts only to help prevent an excuse for change of venue. Thirty years waiting for justice to be served no doubt has contributed to this change of tone.

Latest Georgia Headlines

Nations longest-serving death row inmate says prayer prejudiced his trial

The Associated Press - ATLANTA

A lawyer for the nations longest-serving death row inmate argued Monday that a ministers prayer that Gods will should be done prejudiced the jury against him in a retrial.

Attorney Jack Martin asked the state Supreme Court to stay Tuesdays execution of Carl Isaacs because the court reporter never recorded the prayer, making it impossible for the defense to challenge it effectively.

This is an important enough issue that the court should stop, take a breath and look at it further, Martin told The Associated Press.

Barring a last-minute stay, Isaacs, 49, will be executed by lethal injection Tuesday for orchestrating the slaughter of six members of the Alday family in their home during a burglary in 1973.

Georgias parole board denied a clemency request Friday from Isaacs, and other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have denied previous appeals.

However, one legal expert said the Gods will reference could improperly sway jurors, especially in a death penalty case.

When youre asking whether to put somebody to death, for many people its more of a moral or theological issue than a legal issue, said Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. Its certainly an issue that could have some weight.

Charles Ferguson, the prosecutor who handled the 1988 retrial in Houston County Superior Court, said he doesnt recall anything improper about the prayer. If there had been, he said the presiding judge, Hugh Lawson, would have dismissed the jury.

Certainly, its not unusual for sessions of court to be opened with prayer, Ferguson said. In fact, every session of the Supreme Court of the United States is opened with prayer. Just to say a defendant is prejudiced because a session is opened with prayer doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

Ferguson also said the content of the prayer was in dispute and he could not recall if the Gods will reference was made.

All this has been raised on appeal previously and has been ruled adversely to Isaacs. This is nothing new, he said.

However, Martin said what is new is the issue of the prayer not being recorded. He said he did not learn the prayer was not recorded until 10 years after the retrial, and attempts to get an accurate tape of the prayer from reporters in the courtroom has not been successful.

Since it wasnt taken down, no appellate court has ever granted any relief because they said they didnt know exactly what the minister said, Martin said. The claim that has never been litigated is whether the trial judges failure to say that the prayer had not been recorded deprived Mr. Isaacs of an accurate transcript of his proceedings.

Lawson, the presiding judge, is now a federal judge in Macon. A message left at his office was not immediately returned Monday.

The Aldays, a family of farmers in rural southwest Georgia, were shot to death as they arrived home for lunch at their trailer on May 14, 1973.

Ned Alday was gunned down along with three sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who also was raped before being killed. Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome murders in the states history.

At the time of the murders, Isaacs was on the run from authorities after having escaped from a minimum-security prison camp in Wicomico County, Md.

For his final meal, Isaacs has asked for pork and macaroni, pinto beans, sauteed cabbage, carrot salad, dinner roll, chocolate cake and fruit punch.

Old article

GEORGIA/USA

20/11/01

Chair faces extinction nationwide

When the electric chair was introduced more than 100 years ago, it was hailed as a humane, technological marvel that would carry out executions with painless decency.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the same device faces extinction, viewed by many as brutal, barbaric and torturous. With this month's Georgia Supreme Court decision effectively banning the electric chair, Nebraska and Alabama are the only states still using electrocution as a means of imposing death. And they might not be far behind Georgia.

"We have probably seen the last execution by electric chair in this country," said Donald E. Wilkes Jr., a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. "If there are any more, there will be very few. It will be as obsolete as the guillotine."

The court's 4-3 decision deeming electrocution cruel and unusual punishment was hardly a surprise to legal observers. The justices had made their opinions on the electric chair clear in previous cases and seemed to be waiting for the right case - and evidence - to fashion a ruling on its constitutionality. The Georgia legislature prepared for that eventuality last year when it passed a law declaring that lethal injection would replace electrocution if the electric chair were declared unconstitutional.

What was surprising was the fact that the state Supreme Court had the final say on the electric chair - marking the 1st time in U.S. history an appellate court has declared electrocution unconstitutional.

In other states where the electric chair has been phased out, the legislatures, not the courts, made that decision.

"I think the 4 justices showed exceptional courage in tackling this issue that no other appellate court has ruled on in this way," said Mike Mears, the director of the state's Office of the Multicounty Public Defender and a staunch death penalty opponent. "I'm pleased that the Georgia Supreme Court finally got rid of this monster known as the electric chair."

Why did it take an act of the court, and not the legislature?

Perhaps public opinion, and a grudging reluctance to surrender a lasting symbol of ultimate punishment and retribution.

Mr. Wilkes says the case of Carl Isaacs, the notorious Alday family killer whom he represented on appeal, may have polarized opposition to changing the method of execution. "He's been on death row since January 1974, and a lot of people around the state are very angry about that," Mr. Wilkes said. "Nobody wanted to allow Carl Isaacs to escape the electric chair, if possible."

For Fred Bright, the Ocmulgee Circuit district attorney who has sent 7 people to death row, the method of execution makes no difference.

"We're not looking to torture any defendant, and obviously we want the most humane and painless method possible," Mr. Bright said.

"I'm more interested in speeding up the snail-like pace of these cases and having some finality in the process."

Mr. Mears says the Oct. 5 ruling might do just that. The last 3 execution dates in Georgia have been postponed as the court has mulled the use of the electric chair. (source: Augusta Chronicle)

Isaacs fights Tuesday's death sentence

By BILL TORPY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Carl Isaacs, the nation's longest serving death row inmate, has filed last-ditch appeals claiming a wrongly worded indictment and judicial misconduct should save his life.

Isaacs, first convicted in 1974 for the murders of six members of the Alday family, is scheduled to die at 7 tonight by lethal injection.

The motions, filed Monday in the Supreme Court of Georgia, claim the murder indictment did not include "aggravating circumstances," the additional violent crimes accompanying the murder that prosecutors must note while seeking the death penalty.

The motion, filed by Isaacs' defense attorney, Jack Martin, also states the judge presiding over the 1988 retrial erred when he did not tell defense attorneys that a prayer was not transcribed by the court reporter.

Martin said the minister "apparently instructed the jurors to follow 'God's will,' rather than their own individual ideas about what should be done." Martin said that "raises serious questions as to whether religious principles were improperly interjected into Petitioner's trial."

The appeal says the judge knew of this error and should have immediately informed attorneys, so that a media tape recording could have been used for the trial record.

The state attorney general's office argues the defense motions are merely newer versions of claims previously raised.

Isaacs, his half-brother Wayne Coleman and George Dungee were sentenced to death in 1974 and again in 1988 of shooting to death six members of a Seminole County farm family in southwest Georgia after they interrupted a burglary.

The three men were granted new trials in 1985 when a federal appeals court ruled extensive pre-trial publicity prevented them getting a fair trial. Isaacs was again sentenced to death, but a jury deadlocked on giving Coleman the death penalty. He was sentenced to life. Dungee later pleaded guilty but mentally retarded and was sentenced to life in prison.

For his final meal, Isaacs has asked for the "regular institutional tray," which includes pork and macaroni mixed, pinto beans, cabbage, carrot salad, dinner roll, chocolate cake and fruit punch.

This is a long article, but it has a lot of information.

After Nearly 30 Years, Executioner Calling for Isaacs

ATLANTA - When Georgia prosecutors first began their quest to kill mass murderer Carl Isaacs, the Soviet Union was still around, Star Wars and Wookies were unknown; Space Invaders was still being coded and Elvis was alive.

Now, nearly 30 years since Isaacs was sent to death row on Jan. 24, 1974 for participating in the murders of six members of a rural Georgia farming family, he is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The reign of America's longest surviving death row inmate is about to end.

"His execution is scheduled eight days shy of the 30th anniversary of his murderous spree," said Kim Gibson, a relative by marriage of the six members of the Alday family who were murdered by Isaacs. "While I am overjoyed that this day is finally near; 29 years, 11 months and 22 days is insulting to the Alday family and the entire Seminole County community. Several members of the family have since passed away without ever seeing justice served. That is the biggest injustice of all!"

Gibson made her comments in an e-mail statement to The Death House.com.

"It's about time." said Seminole County Sheriff Jerry Godby, who knew the Alday family before he became the head lawman in the county.

"To kill a 49-year old for a crime he committed when he was 19 certainly seems especially inhumane," said Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "Isaacs has also had bladder cancer and the state provided medical treatment to remove his bladder to keep him alive only to be able to eventually execute him."

A slaughtered family. Dozens of appeals. Two trials. Bitter relatives who question how it could possible take nearly three decades to execute a guilty man. Claims of inhumanity because a killer had bladder cancer. Claims of unfairness because of the four men involved in the slaying of the Alday family, only Isaacs ended up on death row.

"For 25 years my family has pursued justice," wrote Faye Alday Barber, a relative of the family, in a letter to a local newspaper in 1998. "The only thing that stood between the Alday family and justice was the law, and it was the law, not Carl Isaacs that became our ultimate predator.

But the wait is almost over. Instead of years, it is now hours.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a last ditch appeals from Isaac's lawyer. The Georgia parole board last week refused to grant Isaacs clemency.

Isaacs, George Dungee and Wayne Coleman murdered the family of Ned Alday after escaping from a Maryland prison in 1973. Also involved was Billy Isaacs, Carl Isaac's younger brother.

The four cutthroats had driven to southwestern Georgia and had stopped at the Alday home searching for gasoline for their car.

But, when they found no gasoline in an old pump on the property, they broke into the trailer home used by the Alday family and, later, killed them one by one as they came home from working on their farm. The murders occurred May 14, 1973.

Isaacs, Dungee and Coleman were originally sentenced to death. Billy Isaacs testified against the others and received a 40-year prison term for burglary and robbery. He has since been released from prison.

However in 1988, Carl Isaacs, Dungee and Coleman were granted new trials after an appeals court ruled that pretrial publicity generated form the murders gave the perception that the men were not able to get a fair trial in tiny Seminole County, where the family was killed.

When they were retried in 1988, Isaacs was again convicted of six counts of murder and handed six death sentences. Coleman and Dungee received life in prison. All were given separate trials outside Seminole County.

There is no doubt that Isaacs participated in the murder. Isaacs confessed to the killings to a documentary film maker. The admission of guilt was later used as evidence against him. The senseless murders of the Alday family were also the subject of several books including the now out of print, Escape of My Dead Man, and several movies.

John Martin, Isaacs' appeals lawyer, did not return a telephone call for comment.

However, at the parole board hearing last week, Martin pleaded for mercy for Isaacs, bringing up the usual abused childhood claims and saying Isaacs has expressed "remorse" for the murders. He also said Isaacs has had cancer.

But, it appears to be too, little. Sorries and cancer aren't enough, prosecutors say.

Slaughter Begins

The six members of the Alday family were shot to death.

When the escapees drove into Donalsonville, their car was running out of gas. They saw a gas pump behind a rural mobile home belonging to Jerry and Mary Alday and had stopped to see if it had any fuel in it, court documents stated.

When they found the gas pump empty, the men decided to burglarize the mobile home. Coleman and Isaacs entered the home, while Billy Isaacs and Dungee initially stayed outside.

But while Carl Isaacs and Coleman were inside, family members began to arrive, unaware the cons were inside their home. The slaughter was about to begin.

Prosecutors said Jerry Alday and his father, Ned, pulled up to the home. Isaacs, holding a gun, met them outside and ordered them inside the trailer.

Jerry Alday was taken into one bedroom and shot by Isaacs. Ned Alday was taken into another bedroom and shot by both Coleman and Isaacs, court documents stated.

Jimmy Alday (Jerry's brother) then drove up to the mobile home on a tractor and knocked on the door. He was ordered inside, forced to lie on a sofa and shot to death by Carl Isaacs, court documents stated.

Victim Raped

Mary Alday (Jerry's wife) was next. When she came to the trailer, she was raped on a kitchen table by Carl Isaacs and Coleman, court documents stated. Mary Alday was later taken to a wooded area several miles away from the trial, raped by Dungee and then shot and killed, court records stated.

Chester Alday (Jerry's brother), and Aubrey Alday (Jerry's uncle), drove up to the trailer. Again, they were taken to separate bedrooms. Aubrey was shot and killed by Carl Isaacs. Coleman killed Chester, court documents stated.

Family: Disgusted With 30-Year Wait

Over the years surviving, members of the Alday family have expressed bitterness over the length of time it has taken to get Isaacs into the Georgia death house.

In her letter to the editor of a local newspaper, Faye Alday Barber said there was something wrong with a legal system. She wrote that her family had become the victims of "legal plunder" and a justice system that acted like a "predator."

"Our courts and legislators are nothing but vandals at the gates of justice. It took them a quarter of a century, but they beat us; they won. Like Pontius Pilate, they simply washed their hands of innocent blood. We lost our family, our farms, and our heritage. We lost hope... but liberty was not lost; it was stolen."

Dog Dies Of Broken Heart

She said the family dog, Tub, saw the bodies removed from the crime scene and never got over it.

"He went out into the field and laid down, refused to eat or sleep, wouldn't let anyone touch him, and over a period of time his hair fell out, exposing rib bones that protruded through his skin," Barber wrote. "He was a pitiful sight. He became so thin that when it rained, he could have crawled under a honeysuckle vine to keep from getting wet. A veterinarian said (Tub) grieved himself to death. That dog had more compassion for my family than our courts."

The slain members of the Alday family are buried in Spring Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Seminole County. They are remembered with gray marble headstones.

Gibson said she recently visited the cemetery.

"If you've never seen it, let me tell you...it's a breathtaking sight," she wrote. "You've never seen a more beautiful tribute to a family so loved...nor a headstone so large. Though the massive black and gray marble headstone and slabs are lovely, you can't help but stand there and feel tremendous sadness and anger.

"I am eagerly looking forward to the clock striking 7:00 p.m. on May 6," she said. "It's time for this animal to pay for the anguish and hurt he imposed on so many people when he committed the most heinous crime ever committed in the state of Georgia. I only regret that the electric chair has been replaced with lethal injection"

There are reports that at least 60 members of the Alday family will be at the prison to watch Isaacs die. May 4, 2003 Carl Isaacs: Is his time up?
By Robert Anthony Phillips

link to story

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