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Web posted
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
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Isaacs executed for 1973 murders of six members of farm family
By Harry R. Weber
The Associated Press
JACKSON -- A man who helped kill six members of a farm family during a burglary to fuel his escape from a Maryland prison camp was executed Tuesday, 30 years after his crime shook a community.
Carl Isaacs, 49, was given a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson for orchestrating the Alday family killings at their southwest Georgia home on May 14, 1973. Appeals kept him on death row longer than anyone else in the nation.
The Supreme Court refused to grant a last-minute stay, although Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer said the court should have agreed to consider Isaacs' claim that it was unconstitutional to execute him after his long imprisonment. Justice Clarence Thomas, a native of Georgia, did not participate.
Isaacs was pronounced dead at 8:07 p.m. He had ordered a last meal of pork and macaroni, pinto beans, sauteed cabbage, carrot salad, dinner roll, chocolate cake and fruit punch but refused it, a state Corrections Department spokeswoman said.
The killings near Donalsonville prompted more residents to buy guns, sparked legislation that requires victims' families to be notified of developments in death penalty cases and inspired the 1988 movie "Murder One," starring James Wilder as Isaacs.
Over the years, Isaacs' lawyers argued that publicity prevented him from receiving a fair trial and tried to explain his actions by shedding light on his abusive childhood in Baltimore. A retrial ended in the same verdict and sentence.
His final appeal was rejected Tuesday after Isaacs' lawyer said a minister's opening prayer at the retrial prejudiced the jury against him.
Relatives of the Aldays never wavered in their public push for Isaacs to be executed. The repeated delays angered them; some relatives died waiting for the execution. Three members of the family were witnesses.
In his final days, Isaacs, through his lawyer, offered remorse for the killings, saying he was not the same hotheaded person who committed the crime at 19.
The Alday family was unmoved, citing Isaacs' own boastful words in a series of 1975 prison interviews.
"I'd like to get out and kill more of them," he said at the time. "They represent the type of society I don't like. I didn't know them, had never seen them before May 14, but I didn't like them. Working people don't do a damn thing for me."
Isaacs, during the interviews, compared himself to notorious 1930s outlaw John Dillinger.
The Aldays were shot to death as they returned home for lunch.
Ned Alday was gunned down along with three sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who was raped and then taken to a field where she was shot in the head. Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome in the state's history.
Isaacs declined an opportunity to make a final statement, but did ask for a final prayer. After the prayer he mouthed "Amen."
After the prayer, Isaacs scanned the room, looking at witnesses. Then the chemicals started pumping, his cheeks puffed, his breathing fluttered and his eyes began to close, although they never closed completely.
"There were many who thought this wouldn't happen," said Attorney General Thurbert Baker. He described the execution as a "final chapter in the case."
It was the first time in state history that Georgia officials allowed members of the victims' family to witness the execution.
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. Two other men are serving life sentences for the murders. A third was released from prison in 1993.
A friend from Baltimore will pick up the remains, state officials said. The execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. and the delay was partly attributable for the U.S. Supreme Court's deliberations.
There was no one from Isaacs family present at the execution. His attorney and two ministers, who visited with him in the hours before his death, were witnesses.
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