Convicted Georgia murderer’s execution date set, 45 years later

FORSYTH — The Cobb County Superior Court has ordered the execution of convicted murderer Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. The court ordered the Georgia Department of Corrections to carry out the execution on a date between May 17 and May 24.

Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Timothy C. Ward has set the date for Tuesday, May 17, at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 7 p.m.

Presnell was convicted in Cobb County for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl and the kidnapping and rape of a 10-year-old girl. If executed, Presnell will be the 54th inmate in the state put to death by lethal injection.

Georgia DOC