GAINESVILLE - With the commutation of a Dawson County murderer's death penalty to life in prison last week, Georgia is left with 84 people on death row, according to the latest figures from state officials. The number includes seven who were convicted in northeast Georgia.<br />
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The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) says all but one are men. The men are housed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, where the state carries out its executions. The lone woman is incarcerated at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto.<br />
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Tommy Lee Waldrip had been, until last Wednesday, on death row for the murder of a Forsyth County store clerk in Dawson County. But the State Pardons and Paroles Board granted him clemency, changing his sentence to life without parole.<br />
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Of those men still on death row from northeast Georgia, two were convicted in Hall County and one each in Towns, Elbert, Jackson and Lumpkin. <br />
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David Scott Franks, 53, who has been on death row 16 years, and Scott Morrow, 47, who has been under a death sentence for 15 years, are the two inmates who were convicted in Hall County. Donnie Cleveland Lance, 61, was convicted in Jackson County in 1999; Steven Frederick Spears, 48, has been on death row seven years for a Lumpkin County murder; Winston Clay Barrett, 59, was convicted in Towns County in 2005; and, Leonard Drane, 55, has been awaiting execution for 22 years for a murder committed in Elbert County. <br />
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The only woman on death row, Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, was convicted of murder in Barrow County in 1998.<br />
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Of all the death row inmates in Georgia, the one who has been there the longest was convicted in 1976. The oldest death row inmate is 71-years-old.<br />
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You can click on the first link below for a complete list of death row inmates housed at the two prisons mentioned above as of Jan. 1, 2014. (NOTE: The list has not been updated since Waldrip's sentence was commuted, so, he is still listed as being on death row. Others who are listed may no longer be on death row, as well, for whatever reason.) By clicking on the second link below, you can find out more about each inmate and the crimes they committed.<br />
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