Georgia Department of Corrections
Brian Owens, Commissioner
Director of Public Affairs
Joan Heath
Contact: Office of Public Affairs (478) 992-5248
STATE OF GEORGIA
For Immediate Release
Execution Date Set For Chatham County Murderer
Roy Blankenship to be executed Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Forsyth –The Chatham County Superior Court has ordered the execution of convicted murderer Roy Blankenship. The Court ordered the Department to carry out the execution on a date between February 9, 2011 and February 16, 2011. Commissioner Brian Owens has set the date for February 9, 2011 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 7:00 p.m.
Blankenship was convicted in the 1978 murder and sexual assault of a Savannah woman. If executed, he will be the 27th inmate put to death by lethal injection in Georgia.
Media interested in a picture of Blankenship and a listing of his crimes may go to the Department of Corrections website (www.dcor.state.ga.us).
The Department of Corrections is the fifth largest prison system in the United States and is responsible for supervising nearly 60,000 state prisoners and over 150,000 probationers. It is the largest law enforcement agency in the state with approximately 13,000 employees.####