Clemency sought for man who killed teen over car and cash

<p>A man who stabbed and beat a teenager to death for his wallet and car should not be executed partly because he was under the "diabolical" influence of his girlfriend when he committed the crime, his lawyer argued in a clemency petition Friday.</p><p>Timothy Don Carr, 34, is scheduled to die Tuesday by lethal injection for the Oct. 8, 1992 murder of 17-year-old Keith Patrick Young in Monroe County, near Macon. A clemency hearing is set for Monday.</p><p>Carr's lawyer, Brian Kammer, said in his petition to the state parole board that Carr's sentence should be commuted to life in prison or he should be given a 90-day stay of execution to present evidence that he was the puppet of girlfriend Melissa Burgeson when he killed Young.</p><p>"Everyone who knows Tim knows that this crime was completely out of character for him and was the product of the intersection of Tim's wounded personality with Melissa Burgeson's truly diabolical influence," Kammer wrote.</p><p>Carr testified at his trial that he was heavily influenced by the occult and thought that Burgeson was a witch. There's also been testimony over the years that he was sexually abused as a child. A court-appointed forensic psychologist who examined Carr said in an affidavit Friday that Carr was mentally ill when he committed the crime and had recently ingested "massive quantities of hallucinogenic mushrooms."</p><p>Kammer also filed a Superior Court petition late Friday asking for a stay of execution on similar grounds.</p><p>Prosecutor Tommy Floyd said the issues raised in the petition have been litigated before. He said Carr deserves to die.</p><p>"The murder itself was particularly vicious and was essentially pointless," Floyd said in an interview. "They killed him for less than $100 and an old car."</p><p>According to court records, Carr, Burgeson and two 16-year-olds drove in Young's car to a remote area near Bolingbroke, about 65 miles southeast of Atlanta. There, Carr slashed Young's throat at Burgeson's urging and then beat him in the head with a baseball bat as the victim pleaded for his life.</p><p>Carr and one of the juveniles dragged Young's body to the roadside and left him there to die, court records show. Carr and Burgeson fled to Murfreesboro, Tenn., in the victim's Pontiac Grand Prix and were arrested there following a high-speed chase.</p><p>In 1994, Carr was convicted of murder and theft and sentenced to death. Burgeson, now 34, was convicted of the same crimes, but sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The 16-year-old boy was given 18 months in a juvenile facility, while the 16-year-old girl was turned over to state social service officials, parole board spokeswoman Kim Patton-Johnson said.</p><p>In the petitions filed Friday, defense lawyer Kammer argues that Carr should not be executed if Burgeson has the chance to get out of prison someday. He also argues that the prosecutor erred by arguing at Burgeson's trial that she was the instigator and at Carr's trial that he was the instigator.</p><p>Floyd dismissed the argument.</p><p>"You wait and see what the court rules," Floyd said.</p><p>There are currently 112 men and one woman on death row in Georgia. Carr's execution would be Georgia's 37th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973.</p>