FORSYTH, Ga. – The Thomas County Superior Court has ordered the execution of convicted murderer Ray Jefferson Cromartie, according to a statement released from the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Initially his execution by lethal injection was scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, but he received a stay by the Georgia Supreme Court, which ruled that the first execution order hadn’t been properly filed in Thomas County Superior Court.
The stay was lifted after the state and Cromartie’s attorneys agreed that the first order of execution was invalid, according to the AJC.
Cromartie, 52, is still hoping for a chance to prove his innocence through new DNA testing, which he insists would prove it was actually his accomplice who killed store clerk Richard Slysz, 50, during an April 1994 robbery.
Commissioner Timothy C. Ward has set the date for Wednesday, November 13, at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center in Jackson at 7 p.m. where the state’s death row is located.
If executed, Cromartie will be the 52nd inmate put to death by lethal injection.
Cromartie’s last meal request was an 11-course smorgasbord, which included steak, lobster, macaroni and cheese, cubed steak, rice and gravy, a steak and cheese sandwich, a double cheeseburger and fries, a side of ranch dressing, along with a strawberry milkshake, and a layered cake with white icing for dessert.
A representative from the Georgia Department of Corrections, Lori Benoit, provided his most recent request for a last meal which is slightly modified from the previous one and includes steak, lobster, macaroni and cheese, chicken sandwich, chicken Caesar salad with ranch dressing, double cheeseburger, fries, red beans, strawberry milkshake, and apple juice.
There have been 73 men and one woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. There are presently 45 men and one woman under death sentence in Georgia. The Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison is located 45 minutes south of Atlanta off Interstate 75.
For more information about Cromartie and his crimes, click here, and here.
