Paroled rapist to be executed for 1985 murder in Georgia

<p>A convicted rapist who fatally stabbed a woman nine months after he was released from prison was to be executed Wednesday.</p><p>Robert Karl Hicks, 47, was scheduled to be given a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson for killing 28-year-old Toni Strickland Rivers on July 13, 1985.</p><p>Hicks had been granted parole the previous October after serving less than half of a 15-year sentence for raping a 16-year-old girl.</p><p>Hicks' request for clemency for Rivers' murder was denied Monday by the state parole board.</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 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>The man who handled the prosecution at trial described Hicks' latest explanation 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>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/6/165771