(The Center Square) – A Georgia Supreme Court opinion issued Tuesday could stop an execution ban based on the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Attorneys with the Federal Defender Program argued that the vaccine was not attainable for infants younger than 6 months old, which would validate a court order that stopped executions until the vaccine was “readily available to all ages.”
The state issued an execution warrant in 2022 for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., the state’s longest serving inmate on Georgia’s death row, but his execution was stayed based on the arguments about the vaccine’s availability. Presnell was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1976 murder of an 8-year-old girl and the sexual assault of another.
A Fulton County judge agreed with the Federal Defender Program in a subsequent case, which kept the executions on hold. The state appealed.
Justice Carla Wong McMillian wrote in the majority opinion that the vaccine supply now exceeds demand and nothing stops anyone from gettting one if they want it.
“A review of the record reveals nothing that legally prohibits children of any age from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, if requested by a parent and deemed medically appropriate,” McMillian wrote. “Most vaccines – like COVID-19 vaccines – are not generally recommended for children under six months old, which could impact whether a parent chooses to request a COVID-19 vaccine for her child or whether a provider would agree in the exercise of her medical judgment to administer the vaccine, but that does not mean that the vaccine is not available or obtainable.”
Justice Benjamin Land said in a concurring opinion that the order only affected death warrants from the Georgia attorney general and not district attorneys.
“Thus, while the Agreement unquestionably ties the Attorney General’s hands when it comes to his office’s pursuit of execution orders, it does not tie the district attorney’s hands at all,” Land wrote. “If the district attorney wishes to obtain an execution order without the blessing or request of the Attorney General, there is nothing in the Agreement that prevents him or her from doing so.”
The case goes back to Fulton County Superior Court.
