Georgia Supreme Court again holds Fugate's fate
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Posted 2:51PM on Wednesday, June 19, 2002
ATLANTA - Another round of legal filings due Thursday morning from attorneys for Wallace Fugate the third may determine whether the condemned killer gets to live past next week. <br>
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A judge stopped Fugate's execution Tuesday -- hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection -- saying he deserved another clemency hearing before a parole board with all five members present. <br>
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In an effort to kill Fugate before his current death warrant expires at noon next Tuesday, Attorney General Thurbert Baker immediately asked the Georgia Supreme Court to throw out the judge's ruling. <br>
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Fugate's lead attorney, Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights, has until 10 a.m. Thursday to answer Baker's motion. If he convinces the court the judge's order should stand, Fugate would likely be afforded another clemency hearing after a vacant seat on the state Board of Pardons and Parole is filled. <br>
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Bright said Wednesday, ``We've been given until the morning to file a response, and I'm hard at work on it as we speak.'' <br>
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The 52-year-old Fugate of Putnam County was sentenced to die for the 1991 shooting death of his ex-wife, Pattie.