Condemned killer says he was defending self from being raped

<p>A condemned killer who fatally stabbed his gay lover with a screwdriver and dismembered the body argued in court papers Wednesday that he should be granted a new trial because he was fending off an attempted rape.</p><p>The motion filed by a lawyer on behalf of Robert Dale Conklin, 44, came six days before Conklin's scheduled execution for the 1984 death of George Crooks, a lawyer with whom he had been having a romantic relationship.</p><p>The motion in Butts County Superior Court, which has jurisdiction over the state prison in Jackson where Conklin is being held, asks a judge to at least hold a hearing at which Conklin can offer proof for his claims.</p><p>"Is Mr. Conklin guilty of malice murder? No," defense lawyer Mark Olive wrote in the motion. "He is guilty of defending himself from rape and having the worst possible judgment after his attacker was dead."</p><p>Besides the Superior Court motion, a clemency hearing before the state parole board is set for Monday. The execution, which would be Georgia's third this year, is set for Tuesday.</p><p>Conklin has argued over the years that he was provided ineffective counsel at his trial and that the trial court erred by denying his request for money to hire a defense medical expert.</p><p>Olive wrote in Wednesday's motion that a defense expert who was eventually hired in 1995 concluded that Conklin was defending himself at the time of the attack.</p><p>But prosecutors have argued that what happened after the killing left no doubt that it was intentional. An instruction manual was recovered from Conklin's apartment describing how to slaughter animals in the same manner that Conklin admitted having disposed of Crooks' body.</p><p>Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Tuesday that he believes Conklin deserves to be executed, and he said he will oppose clemency at Monday's hearing. Howard spokesman Erik Friedly said Wednesday's motion offered nothing that would change Howard's position.</p><p>Conklin told police that on the night of the murder, he told Crooks, 28, that he wanted to end their relationship. He said the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Crooks was sitting on his stomach on a bed in Conklin's Atlanta apartment, and he tried to push Crooks off, but couldn't.</p><p>Conklin, who at the time was 5-7, 150 pounds, said he then picked up a screwdriver and repeatedly stabbed Crooks in the head. Prosecutors have suggested that Conklin also used a knife in the attack, but Wednesday's defense motion said an independent medical expert has found that the knife was used only after Crooks was dead.</p><p>Conklin drained blood from Crooks' body, cut it up and threw some parts in trash bags, stuffing the rest down a garbage disposal. The former McDonald's manager was arrested a few days later.</p><p>A year earlier, Conklin was released on parole from prison in Illinois following burglary, theft and armed robbery convictions.</p>