Georgia Set to Execute Man for 1982 Killing of a Friend

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia plans to execute a man convicted of killing a friend after a night of partying more than three decades ago.

John Wayne Conner is scheduled to be put to death Thursday evening by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. The inmate, who is now 60, was convicted of fatally beating his friend J.T. White during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use in January 1982.

If carried out, the execution would be the sixth in Georgia this year and the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976. Georgia executed five inmates last year and in 1987.

Conner's lawyers have argued that the inmate is intellectually disabled and, therefore, shouldn't be executed.

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