Parole board schedules meeting to consider clemency for Virgil Presnell Jr.
May 12—ATLANTA — The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a meeting for Monday to receive information for or against clemency for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. The five-member Georgia Parole Board will begin its meeting with Presnell's representatives at 9 a.m. to receive information in favor of commuting Presnell's death sentence.
Presnell was convicted by a jury of four crimes committed in 1976 against two girls, ages 8 and 10 years old. He was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the younger child and kidnapping with bodily injury and raping the older child. The jury imposed the death sentence.
The Superior Court of Cobb County has ordered the execution of Presnell, which has been scheduled by the Georgia Department of Corrections for 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. The Parole Board will thoroughly review the comprehensive case file maintained on the offender prior to the scheduled meeting.
In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency and commute or reduce a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. Following the meeting, the board may commute the sentence, issue a stay of up to 90-days, or deny clemency.
The meeting will take place at the Parole Board's central office in the East Tower of the Floyd Veterans Memorial Building located at 2 Martin Luther King Jr., Drive, S.E. in Atlanta. It is anticipated that the meeting will be closed as authorized by O.C.G.A. § 50-14-3 (a)(2). No public comment will be taken at this meeting, and no other business will be conducted. Media will be afforded the opportunity to take photographs in the board hearing room prior to the meeting.
For more information, contact the Parole Board's communications office at (404) 657-9450 or email steve.hayes@pap.ga.gov.
