The state of Georgia executed Carl Isaacs on May 6, 2003. On Friday, May 2, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Isaacs' request for clemency. The state Supreme Court and US Supreme Court denied requests for an appeal on May 6.
Death penalty opponents observed vigils in nine locales around the state.
1) Case BackgroundIsaacs has served the longest time on death row of any one in the nation. To kill a 49 year old for a crime he committed when he was 19 certainly seems especially inhumane. 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.
Isaacs along with 3 other men were invovled in the killing of six members of the Alday family in Seminole County, Georgia. The murders were especially heinous, with one of the women being raped. The fact that of the four co-defendants, only one was sentenced to death, especially when one of the co-defendants in particular appears to have been equally culpable as Isaacs points to the arbitrary nature of the death penalty.
Isaacs had a chaotic life growing up and lived in various foster homes and was subject to abuse. He served time in prison and was badly abused before being let out and commissioning the Alday murders.
PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/061/2003
EXTRA 22/03 Death penalty 30 April 2003
USA (Georgia) Carl Isaacs (m), white, aged 49
Carl Isaacs is scheduled to be executed on 6 May 2003 in Georgia. The crime for which he is set to die took place 30 years ago when he was 19 years old. He is now 49, having already served the equivalent of a life sentence.
On 14 May 1973, six members of the same family were murdered near their mobile home in Seminole County in the rural southwest corner of Georgia: Jerry Alday aged 35, Ned Alday aged 62, Jimmy Alday aged 25, Mary Alday aged 26, Chester Alday aged 32 and Aubrey Alday aged 57. Mary Alday was also raped.
Four people were tried for the crime in 1974: Carl Isaacs, his 15-year-old brother Billy Isaacs, his half-brother Wayne Coleman aged 25, and a friend George Dungee aged 34. The three adult defendants were sentenced to death. Their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1985 on the grounds that pre-trial publicity had prejudiced the fairness of their Seminole County trial. At a retrial in another county in 1988, Carl Isaacs was again sentenced to death and he has been on death row ever since. According to the state’s case, Carl Isaacs shot Jerry, Ned, Jimmy and Aubrey Alday.
Wayne Coleman and George Dungee were resentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. They are still in prison. According to the state's case, Wayne Coleman killed Chester Alday and also shot Ned Alday, while Mary Alday, who was allegedly raped by Wayne Coleman and Carl Isaacs, was killed by George Dungee. Billy Isaacs served 19 years before being released.
Carl Isaacs was diagnosed with cancer in recent years, and had to have his bladder removed.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Since Carl Isaacs was first sentenced to death in 1974, more than 60 countries have abolished the death penalty in law. Today, 112 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. In 1972, in Furman v Georgia, the US Supreme Court overturned the USA’s capital laws because of the arbitrary way in which the death penalty was being handed out, and there was hope that the USA might move toward abolition. However, the Supreme Court did not find the death penalty to be unconstitutional per se, and state legislatures quickly set about rewriting their capital laws to take account of the Furman ruling. In Gregg v Georgia in 1976, in a decision that would place the USA squarely on the wrong side of history in relation to the death penalty, the Supreme Court approved the new capital laws. Executions resumed in the USA with the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah in January 1977. Since then, more than 840 men and women have been put to death in 32 states and at the federal level.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally. Every death sentence is an affront to human dignity, every execution a symptom of, rather than a solution to, a culture of violence. The death penalty has not been shown to have a unique deterrent effect, carries the risk of irrevocable error, and extends the suffering of one family – that of the murder victim – to another – the loved ones of the condemned. In effect, the death penalty for murder imitates and takes to new heights of calculation what it seeks to condemn, the deliberate taking of human life.
The death penalty in the USA is arbitrary, discriminatory, and inevitably cruel. Who is sentenced to death is influenced not only by the crime itself, but issues such as race or status of the murder victim or the defendant, where the crime is committed, the quality of legal representation and political considerations. The US capital justice system is characterised by error, both in terms of convictions and sentencing. More than 100 people have been released from death rows since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. A landmark study published in 2000, and covering a 23-year period, found that the error rate in capital cases was 68 per cent. In other words, in almost seven out of every 10 cases, appeal courts had found that the conviction or sentence should not stand. Inadequate legal representation and prosecutorial or police misconduct were the main errors. The study expressed grave doubts that the courts were finding all such errors.
Support for a moratorium on executions has grown over recent years in the USA as the evidence of the unreliability and unfairness of the death penalty system has mounted. However, most politicians have failed to offer human rights leadership, preferring to defer to perceived public support for judicial killing. Their failure of leadership has left the USA increasingly isolated on this fundamental issue, and given the lie to the USA’s self-proclaimed status as the world’s most progressive force for human rights.
As of 30 April 2003, there had been 849 executions in the USA since 1977, including 29 in 2003. Georgia has carried out 32 executions.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language, in your own words:
- expressing sympathy for the surviving members and friends of the Alday family and acknowledging the very serious nature of the crime for which Carl Isaacs was sentenced to death;
- opposing the death penalty and calling for clemency for Carl Isaacs;
- noting that Carl Isaacs was the only one of four defendants to receive a death sentence;
- noting that Carl Isaacs, who was 19 at the time of the crime, has been under sentence of death for almost 30 years, the equivalent of a life sentence;
- noting that in the same period more than 60 countries have abolished the death penalty, bringing to 112 the number of countries that have turned their backs on executions in law or practice;
- urging the Board members to offer principled human rights leadership in the interest of the reputation of Georgia and the USA by commuting this death sentence.
APPEALS TO:
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
Floyd Veterans Memorial Building,
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S.E.
Suite 458, Balcony Level, East Tower,
Atlanta, GA 30334-4909, USA
Telegram: Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Fax: +1 404 651 8502
Salutation: Dear Board Members
COPIES TO: Diplomatic representatives of USA accredited to your country.
You may write brief letters (not more than 250 words) to the editor of:
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
PO Box 4689,
Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
Fax: +1 404 526 5746
Email: letters@ajc.com
The Augusta Chronicle,
PO Box 1928,
Augusta, GA 30903, USA
Fax: +1 706 722 7403.
Email: letters@augustachronicle.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
THE PAROLE BOARD HAS ALREADY MET AND DENIED CLEMENCY. LETTERS ARE NOT NEEDED AT THIS TIME
Please send a letter to the parole board. In Georgia, executive clemency power rests with the board, which the governor appoints. The governor certainly has influence, but he has no direct power to stop an execution. Therefore, we ask you to write to the board primarily. If you are able to fax a letter, that is best, but paper mail is fine if you do not have access to a fax machine. If you are able to send a copy of your letter to the Governor (fax: 404-657-7332), please do.
If you are able to handwrite your letter, that is also better, but please print this letter and fax it to the parole board at the very minimum. Please sign and print your name and print your mailing address (this is especially important if you live in Georgia).
Click here for a printer-ready version of the model letter below (rtf format).
Dear Mr. Nix:
I wish to express my sadness over the murders of six members of the Alday family in 1973. I know their deaths have caused immeasurable pain, and my heart goes out to those affected by the tragedy.
However, I urge you to grant clemency to Carl Isaacs, who is scheduled to be executed May 6 for the Alday murders. Isaacs received the death penalty just two years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s capital punishment statute, claiming that the system’s arbitrary and often disproportionate nature constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Although the court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Isaacs has encountered the exact problems the court criticized in 1972. He is the only one of his co-defendants facing execution for the murders – a fact that epitomizes the arbitrary nature of the death penalty process.
This case, now three full decades old, has cost the state of Georgia millions of dollars. Had prosecutors simply sought a life sentence for Isaacs in 1974, they would have saved a significant portion of that money, which could have been used for education and violence prevention.
I urge you to recognize the fact that the death penalty remains arbitrary and capricious, and that our revenge-driven justice system would work just as effectively, and more efficiently, if we chose life sentences instead of the death penalty. Please grant clemency to Carl Isaacs.
Sincerely,
cc: Governor Sonny Purdue
If the execution is not stayed, vigils will be observed across the state. This is a tentative schedule. We will confirm them shortly:
Contact: Laura Moye, 404-876-5661x12, lmoye@aiusa.org
Directions: On I-75, take exit 201 and turn east off of the exit ramp (left if you're heading south) Go one light down and turn left - the entrance is very close to the prison and right off the main road. There are two truck stops on the opposite side from the prison just off the interstate. When you arrive on the site, you will be asked if you are "for" or "against" the execution and directed to the appropriate side.
What to bring: it's best to bring as little as possible - cameras are not allowed. Signs are OK If you want to carpool or need a ride, please contact GFADP.
Come out to the capitol steps on the Washington St. side Contact: Laura Moye, 404-876-5661x12, lmoye@aiusa.org
Come to the corner of Prince and Forsyth Streets Contact: John Cole-Vodika, 229-928-2080
E. Broad St. Contact: Robbie Buller, 706-783-5131, jupileep@igc.org
530 Greene St. Contact: Felicia Floyd, 803-279-7362; Margie Rece, 706-738-6529
We are waiting on confirmation of this vigil. Please contact the following if interested in attending. Contact: Helen O'Brien, (h)706-754-2508 or Anne Hall, (h)706-754-7071
Milstead Ave. Contact: Barbara Lee, 770-483-2648
Bay St. and Bull St. Contact: Martina Correia, 912-231-1612, aug1970@aol.com
If you can't make it to Jackson, but would be willing to gather with others at your local courthouse, please let us know – gfadp@yahoo.com