Free Republic

Isaacs' lawyer says prayer prejudiced his trial The Associated Press A lawyer for the nation's longest-serving death row inmate argued Monday that a minister's opening prayer that "God's will should be done" prejudiced the jury against him in a retrial. Attorney Jack Martin asked Georgia's Supreme Court to stay Tuesday's 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,...

Board rejects appeal to spare Alday killer Carl Isaacs The Associated Press 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...