Atlanta Journal Constitution  -  - DECEMBER 11, 2001

GEORGIA - Execution

Parker executed despite advocates' pleas for mercy

Despite claims that he is a changed man, Byron Ashley Parker died at 7:26 p.m. Tuesday, becoming the 4th person executed in Georgia by lethal injection since Oct. 25.

He recorded his final words into a tape recorder before he was led into the death chamber, where he apologized to the family of Christie Ann Griffith. He declined to make a 2nd statement to witnesses after he was strapped to the gurney.

Hazel Griffith, mother of the 11-year-old girl Parker was convicted of murdering, said she would go to her daughter's grave today to tell her," 'Baby, rest in peace because your killer is dead in hell.' He took everything away from me, and I hope he burns in hell."

Parker, 41, was sentenced to die for the Douglas County kidnapping, raping and strangling of Christie Ann Griffith in 1984 after the young girl asked him if he had seen the taxi that was to carry her to her brother's high school graduation. Parker offered her a ride. He took her to a secluded area where he killed her and left her body tied to a tree. During the crime, his 2-year-old son waited inside a nearby locked car.

Parker spent his last day visiting with friends and relatives; about 20 came throughout the day. Corrections spokesman Mike Light said Parker was emotional all day Tuesday, and after his relatives left he cried for the 1st time.

Unlike the the 26 men Georgia has executed in the past 18 years under the current death penalty law, Parker did not ask for anything special for his last meal. Parker declined the meal that was served late Tuesday afternoon to other inmates at the Diagnostic and Classification Prison at Jackson. All he had before his execution was chocolate milk and coffee.

Witnesses said Parker's only words once he was in the chamber were to ask for a prayer, and to echo the chaplain when he ended it with "Amen."

Throughout the 10-minute procedure Parker "mostly stared at the ceiling," according to witnesses.

In addition to the official witnesses who are routinely assembled for executions, this time there was an investigator for a 19-year-old accused murder facing the death penalty in Bibb County. A judge ordered the Department of Corrections to allow a representative for Thomas Gaillard to be there to present evidence in his unscheduled trial as to whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel.

Unlike 2 of the 3 previous lethal injections, Corrections officials said they had no problems finding veins in which to send the lethal drug combination.

"He's getting an easy way out," said Hazel Griffith, still bitter about the death of her youngest child.

Griffith, now a 57-year-old grandmother, waited at home for news that Parker was dead.

Parker's advocates tried to win him mercy by portraying him as changed and rehabilitated. They included about 100 writers who considered him a peer. Parker has written poetry, novels and screenplays, including some that were published, according to his attorney.

"I believe in rehabilitation," Bettie Sellers, Georgia's poet laureate 1997-2000, said of the man to whom she had offered writing tips. "I believe if anyone has been rehabilitated . . . Byron Parker is that person. He is not the same person who murdered that little girl."

Parker becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 27th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Parker becomes the 65th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 748th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.