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News Service 213/96
AI INDEX: AMR 51/91/96
12 NOVEMBER 1996

UNITED STATES: GEORGIA TO EXECUTE ELLIS WAYNE FELKER DESPITE
GRAVE DOUBTS CONCERNING HIS GUILT


The State of Georgia is scheduled to put Ellis Wayne Felker
to death in the electric chair at 14.00 Thursday 14 November
despite grave doubts about his guilt for the crime for which
he was sentenced to die.

      "That Georgia should even contemplate this execution
going ahead when there is serious concern about whether Ellis
Wayne Felker is in fact guilty is unacceptable," Amnesty
International said today.

      "No system of justice is infallible, and for this
reason every justice system should strive to correct mistakes
when they happen. By executing Ellis Wayne Felker, Georgia
deprives him of his life and the state the opportunity to
admit a mistake has been made at a later date, should the
evidence newly discovered by defence attorneys prove his
innocence."

       Ellis Wayne Felker has survived two attempts by
Georgia to have him executed in 1996. The most recent on 10
September was stayed by the courts -- less than 30 minutes
before it was scheduled and after his head and  leg had been
shaved to take the electrodes -- after the discovery of five
crates of police notes and evidence that the prosecution had
failed to make available to defence attorneys at the original
trial in 1982. The crates contained a signed confession from
another suspect in the case and forensic samples from the
victim and crime scene that, via DNA testing, could exonerate
Ellis Wayne Felker.

      Authorities in Georgia refuse to even consider that a
mistake could occur in the administration of the death
penalty. The Attorney General of Georgia, Michael Bowers,
recently went on record as stating that there were no
innocent prisoners on death row: "There is rarely any
question about the guilt of these people, virtually none.
That is a myth...these guys on death row are the pits."

      When asked specifically about the Ellis Wayne Felker
case, Bowers replied: "I've talked to the cops who
investigated him, and I asked them: 'Guys, is there any doubt
about his guilt?' And they told me, 'Bullshit'".

      Other evidence against Ellis Wayne Felker also appears
weak. He was accused of murdering Joy Ludlum, who disappeared
14 days before the discovery of her body. Ellis Wayne Felker,
who knew Joy Ludlum, was the main suspect and was put under
police surveillance within hours of her disappearance. After
the discovery of Joy Ludlum's body in a creek, the first
autopsy put her death within the previous five days. However,
when it was realized that this would have ruled Ellis Wayne
Felker out as a suspect as he had been under police
surveillance for the pervious 13 days, the findings of the
autopsy were changed. The autopsy was carried out by an
unqualified laboratory technician.

      Attorneys representing Ellis Wayne Felker during the
appeals process showed the original notes from the autopsy
and photographs of Ludlum's body to pathologists who
unanimously concluded that she could not have been dead for
longer than three days. However, the appeal courts have
upheld Ellis Wayne Felker's conviction.

      Amnesty International is urging the Attorney General of
Georgia to implement a full investigation into the possible
innocence of Ellis Wayne Felker and not to oppose legal
appeals for a stay of execution from defence attorneys
representing him.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Georgia has executed 20 inmates since the resumption of
executions in 1983: this is the sixth largest number for a
state in the USA. Since the resumption of executions, four
death row inmates in Georgia have been found innocent. Sixty-
five death row inmates have been cleared and released by the
federal appeal courts since 1973.Three hundred and forty-
seven prisoners have been executed in the USA since 1977.

      In June 1996 Amnesty International released a document
The Death Penalty in Georgia: Racist, Arbitrary and Unfair
detailing many concerns around the manner in which the death
penalty is administered.

      Several inmates have been released from death rows in
the USA after being exonerated this year. Roberto Miranda was
released in Nevada after 14 years and Dennis Williams and
Verneal Jimerson were released in Illinois after 18 years. On
7 November the Governor of Virginia commuted the death
sentence of Joseph Payne to life imprisonment without parole
three hours before his scheduled execution after serious
doubts were raised concerning his guilt. Retrials have been
ordered in numerous death penalty cases.
ENDS\











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