A death row inmate who murdered an eight-year-old girl and raped her friend, 10, has had his execution delayed due to a Covid rule technicality.
Virgil Delano Presnell Jr, 68, was due to die by lethal injection at a Georgia prison on Tuesday for the crimes he committed in 1976.
But the execution was postponed due to rules over executions during Covid and the criteria for when they can start again, say reports.
Presnell was convicted of murder, kidnapping and rape in August 1976, with his death sentence overturned in 1992 before it was reinstated in 1999.
He abducted two girls as they walked home along a wooded trail from their school in Cobb County in May, 1976.
Presnell then raped the 10-year-old girl and drowned the eight-year-old when she tried to run away, George Supreme Court heard at the time.
Now lawyers for Presnell argued that to put Presnell to death would break Covid rules and it was upheld by Fulton County Superior Court, where it was agreed to temporarily halt the execution.
Under regulations imposed during the pandemic no death sentences could take place until six months after three conditions had been met - and Presnell’s representatives successfully claimed this had not happened.
The three conditions were that the Covid judicial emergency period had ended, the return to normal visiting rights and access of a vaccine to members of the public.
It was argued by the defence that normal visiting practice was not being carried out and that not all the public had access to a vaccine as it was not being given to young children.
Then the state attorney told Presnell's representative Monet Brewerton-Palmer was only given two days to prepare for a clemency hearing after the state issued a warrant on April 27, which broke the six month stated period.
In the clemency hearing it was also argued that Presnell was born "brain damaged" which prevented him being a capable and "responsible" adult.
And it was alleged by Ms Bewerton-Palmer that due to the Covid restrictions on visiting, a key witness was unable to offer their account to support this claim.
