Man to be Executed in Georgia for 1997 Murder of Police Officer

On Wednesday, Georgia plans to put to death a man who opened fire on Atlanta police in 1997. The man killed one officer and injured another critically after they had given his intoxicated girlfriend a ride home.

Gregory Paul Lawler, 63, is slated to be executed by injection at 7 p.m. EDT at a state prison in Jackson. According to data from the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center, the execution would be the seventh this year in Georgia. This matches Texas for the most death sentences done in a state in 2016.

The center’s data shows that there have been 16 executions in the United States in 2016 as compared to 28 last year.

In 2000, Lawler was sentenced to death after being found guilty in the killing of officer John Sowa. Meanwhile, Patricia Cocciolone, the other officer, survived the shooting with damaged intestines, a shattered pelvis and permanent brain injury. According to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case, She testified at Lawler’s trial.

The summary said, the night of the October 1997 shooting, Lawler and his girlfriend had been drinking at a bar near their Atlanta apartment.

A witness who thought he saw Lawler hit the woman with a bag as they walked home summoned the police. Lawler took off when the officers arrived.

The officers agreed to help the woman get home. When they got to the apartment, Lawler met them and opened fire at the officers 15 times, the case synopsis said.

Both Cocciolone and Sowa still had their pistols fastened into their holsters when backup arrived. According to court records, Lawler surrendered after a six-hour confrontation.

Intense hatred for police

A co-worker testified at the trial that Lawler had talked about having an extreme dislike of police, court records said. He also said that if they ever tried to enter his home he would be ready for them.

On Tuesday, Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Lawler’s request for clemency. His attorneys said Lawler had lately been diagnosed with autism. Moreover, they claimed that the disorder had prevented him from rationalizing the murder to jurors.

The petition requested to have Lawler’s sentence commuted to life in prison without parole.

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