GEORGIA LAST MEAL
William Putnam
November 13, 2002

3 victims, 3 eggs. Oooookay.

Last meal: three eggs over light, toast, bacon, hash browns, vanilla ice cream and two soft drinks.

The skinny: Putman was executed Wednesday for the deaths of a couple sleeping at a south Georgia rest stop 22 years ago. Putman approached a family sleeping at a rest area on July 10, 1980. The family was traveling home to Kentucky from a vacation at Daytona Beach, Fla. Putman shot the car's driver. Then Putman demanded that his wife leave with him. She refused and screamed for David as he lay dying. Then she was shot in the head. He also was serving a life sentence for killing a school teacher at a truck stop the day before.

MCI day: Putman had instructed his attorney on Tuesday to drop his final appeals, and spent his last two days meeting with 29 family members and friends.

Hell No! on that prayer Putman declined to make a final statement.When asked, he said, "No, thank you." Asked if he wanted a prayer, he said, "No, No." Putman did not close his eyes as the chemicals used for execution went through his system. He looked straight ahead and muttered something unintelligible.

Factoids: It was the state's eighth execution by injection.

The execution was witnessed by Shannon Blincoe, daughter of the slain couple, who was in the front seat of the car when her parents were shot. She was eight months old at the time. Three older children also were in the car when the shootings took place.

There were about a dozen anti-death penalty demonstrators outside the prison during the execution.

Huh? "Every time we execute somebody it's repeating the violence we're supposed to be against," said Laura Moye, one of the protesters. "The state shouldn't have the power to take human life because it can't give life back when it makes mistakes."