Georgia man's lawyers make final efforts to spare his life

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's parole board is considering arguments to spare the life of a man set to be executed this week.

Scotty Garnell Morrow is scheduled to die Thursday. He was convicted of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend Barbara Ann Young and her friend Tonya Woods at Young's Gainesville home in December 1994.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles was holding a closed-door clemency hearing Wednesday. The parole board is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence.

His lawyers argued in a clemency petition that lingering effects of childhood abuse caused him to snap and that his sentence was disproportionate given the spontaneous and emotional nature of his crime.

Separately, Morrow's lawyers are challenging the constitutionality of his sentence in court, saying it was improperly imposed.