Execution date set for man originally slated for electrocution

ATLANTA - The man who was spared electrocution when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional now has a date to be executed by lethal injection. <br> <br> Ronald K. Spivey is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. on Jan. 24 in Jackson for the 1976 murder of a Columbus police officer. His sentence was overturned in 1982 by a federal appeals court, but he was retried, convicted and again sentenced to death a year later. <br> <br> Spivey was four hours away from execution on March 6, 2001, when the Supreme Court granted a stay so that it could consider whether electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment. <br> <br> In a graphic ruling Oct. 5, the court said electrocution ``inflicts purposeless physical violence and needless mutilation,&#39;&#39; with a ``certainty of cooked brains and blistered bodies.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The court also pointed out that the state has ``viable alternatives which minimize or eliminate the pain and/or mutilation,&#39;&#39; alluding to Georgia&#39;s new procedure for execution, lethal injection. <br> <br> The Legislature previously established lethal injection as the method of execution for capital crimes committed after May 1, 2000. The court&#39;s ruling made it effective for all death row inmates. <br> <br> The state executed its first inmate by lethal injection on Oct. 25 when Terry Mincey was put to death. The 62-year-old Spivey would be the fifth Georgia inmate to die by lethal injection. <br> <br>