Paroled Ga. rapist sentenced to death for 1985 murder asks for clemency

<p>A construction worker who fatally stabbed a woman just nine months after he was released from prison having served less than half of his sentence on a rape conviction is asking to be spared execution.</p><p>Robert Karl Hicks, 47, stabbed 28-year-old Toni Strickland Rivers eight times with a pocket knife and slit her throat on July 13, 1985. He left her body _ nude from the waist down _ in a field, court records show. Hicks, who did not know the woman, had followed her from a rural grocery where she was using a pay phone.</p><p>Hicks was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.</p><p>The execution, set for Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson, would be Georgia's first this year and its 35th since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. A clemency hearing before the state parole board is set for Monday.</p><p>Hicks was previously convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl who was an acquaintance of his and leaving her unconscious in a street gutter, authorities said. He was released from prison on Oct. 1, 1984, after serving only six years of a 15-year sentence.</p><p>He told the parole board in a letter asking for early release that he developed "a better attitude toward life" after completing a high school equivalency course in prison. He wrote that he believed he could make it in society and "abide by the set rules."</p><p>Guidelines at the time allowed convicts to cut an extra day off their sentence for every day served with good behavior, parole board spokeswoman Heather Hedrick said. A state law denying parole to convicted rapists did not go into effect until 1995, she said.</p><p>Rivers' murder occurred near Griffin in Spalding County, about 35 miles south of Atlanta. Hicks was not charged with raping Rivers.</p><p>A lawyer for Hicks, Robert McGlasson, did not return several phone calls Friday seeking comment on the clemency request. Spalding County District Attorney Bill McBroom said his office will oppose the request.</p><p>"This guy is obviously a predator," said David Fowler, who handled the prosecution during Hicks' murder trial.</p><p>Hicks had used an insanity defense at his trial for Rivers' murder. A psychiatrist who met with Hicks and performed an evaluation to assist in his defense diagnosed him with "intermittent explosive disorder," which the doctor said rendered Hicks unable to control his impulses, court records show.</p>

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