Georgia Supreme Court stays execution of convicted killer for a day

<p>The Georgia Supreme Court delayed for a day the execution of a convicted rapist who fatally stabbed a woman nine months after he was released from prison.</p><p>Robert Karl Hicks, 47, had been scheduled to be given a lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson for killing 28-year-old Toni Strickland Rivers in 1985.</p><p>The execution was delayed until Thursday at 3 p.m. at the earliest, though the actual time would be set by the Department of Corrections, said agency spokeswoman Peggy Chapman. The high court did not issue a reason for the temporary stay, spokesman Rick Diguette said.</p><p>Lawyers for Hicks did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.</p><p>Hicks stabbed Rivers eight times with a pocket knife, slit her throat and left her body _ nude from the waist down _ in a field near Griffin, about 35 miles south of Atlanta. Hicks, who did not know the woman, had followed her from a rural grocery where she was using a pay phone, prosecutors said.</p><p>Hicks had been granted parole the October before the murder after serving less than half of a 15-year sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl.</p><p>Hicks used an insanity defense at trial _ his doctor said he suffered from a disorder that prevented him from controlling his impulses. In recent days, Hicks claimed he was innocent and that a drug dealer and another man committed the murder.</p><p>Hicks' request for clemency for Rivers' murder was denied Monday by the state parole board.</p><p>His lawyers had argued in their petition that the prosecutor improperly suggested at trial that the Ten Commandments do not recognize insanity as a defense for murder. They also argued that Hicks' claim of innocence should be investigated.</p><p>The man who handled the prosecution at trial, David Fowler, described Hicks' latest explanation for the murder and his lawyers' claims as ridiculous.</p><p>Hicks was picked up by a sheriff's deputy near the murder scene after his car ran out of gas. A bloody knife later determined to be the murder weapon was found in his pocket.</p><p>His pants, socks, and car seat were stained with the victim's blood. A pair of women's shorts, sandals and a key ring with the initials "T.R." were found in the car, court records show.</p><p>The execution would be the first in Georgia this year and 35th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.</p>