USA - Georgia. Board Commutes Death Sentence of 'Model Prisoner' Daniel Greene, 42, black

Board Commutes Death Sentence of 'Model Prisoner'. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles reduced the death sentence of Daniel Greene, 42, black, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Greene had been sentenced to death for the 1991 fatal stabbing of Bernard Walker, a convenience store clerk, during a robbery. The Board had stayed Greene's execution, which was set for April 19, in order to further consider his clemency petition. Greene's petition included more than 500 signatures urging clemency and letters from a number of well-respected members of the community. Among the letters was one from a former correctional officer, Randy Foster, who called Greene "as fine a man as I have ever met in my life," and said, "He is not like anyone else on death row. Daniel Greene is the type of person you want for an inmate. He has never given me (or anyone else as far as I know) even the hint of a problem." In his own letter to the Board, Greene apologized for the pain he caused the victim's family and said, "I was on drugs at the time, but I took the drugs with my hands, and I take the responsibility. That choice to do drugs and what I did after were the worst mistakes of my life. I do not blame the drugs. I blame myself for everything." This was the second clemency granted nationally in 2012 (See Robert Gattis in Delaware, Jan. 17, 2012) and the eighth granted in Georgia since 1976. The board's decision marked just the fourth time it's granted clemency since 2002.