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
Blankenship Execution Media Advisory
Inmate's Last Meal
Forsyth – Condemned murderer Roy Blankenship is scheduled for execution by lethal injection at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 23, 2011, at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Blankenship was sentenced to death in the 1978 murder of a woman in Chatham County.
Media witnesses for the execution are Greg Bluestein, The Associated Press; Eddie Ledbetter, Statesboro Herald; and Mitchell E. Peace, The Claxton Enterprise.
Blankenship declined to request a special last meal and instead will be offered the institution's meal tray, consisting of chicken and rice, peas, carrots, collard greens, corn bread, a brownie and iced tea.
There have been 49 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973. If executed, Blankenship will be the 27th inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 101 men and one woman on death row in Georgia.
The Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison is located 45 minutes south of Atlanta off Interstate 75. From Atlanta, take exit 201 (Ga. Hwy. 36), turn left over the bridge and go approximately 1/4 mile. The entrance to the prison is on the left. Media covering the execution will be allowed into the prison’s media staging area beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday.
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