JACKSON, Ga.—A Georgia man who killed an 8-year-old girl and raped her 10-year-old friend 46 years ago was not executed as scheduled Tuesday night, state officials said as a temporary stay put in place by a judge remained in effect.
A judge on Monday issued the order pausing the state’s plans to administer a lethal injection a day later to Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. The state on Tuesday appealed that order to the Georgia Supreme Court, which still hadn’t ruled as the 7 p.m. execution time approached.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Joan Heath said just before 6:30 p.m. that the attorney general’s office had advised prison officials that the execution would not be carried out Tuesday….