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Death Penalty

Former Georgia justice calls death penalty 'morally indefensible'

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Norman Fletcher voted to uphold death sentences several times during his 15 years as a justice on the Georgia Supreme Court.

Since leaving the bench in 2005, however, he has signed several legal briefs urging courts to halt executions. In a speech on Tuesday, he said he was about to “shock” his audience, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports in a story noted by the Sentencing Law and Policy blog.

Fletcher said the death penalty is not applied fairly and consistently, and is “morally indefensible.” Capital punishment must be halted altogether, he said. “It is time for us to quit the tinkering and totally abolish this barbaric system,” he said.

Fletcher made the appearance to receive an award from the Southern Center for Human Rights for helping create a statewide public defender system.