Prosecutor is 'pathologically enthralled' with death penalty, motion says; 'Death Row Marv' is cited
A motion filed on behalf of a Georgia inmate contends the District Attorney who sent him to death row is “pathologically enthralled” with the death penalty.
The motion filed on behalf of Rodney Young says DA Layla Zon pursues death sentences with zeal that is greater than any other DA in the state, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The motion cites statistics and refers to a “Death Row Marv” toy in her office.
The Death Row Marv character is seated in an electric chair, with a helmet atop his head. The electric chair buzzes and Marv’s eyes turn red, but Marv survives. “That the best you can do, you pansies?” The toy is based on a comic book and Sin City movie in which actor Mickey Rourke makes the “pansies” remark after a first attempt at electrocution doesn’t work.
Since 2011, the motion says, four out of 11 death penalty trials in the state took place in Newton County, one of two counties in which Zon’s office prosecutes cases.
Zon told the Journal-Constitution the toy was already in her office when she became DA in 2010, and she recently got rid of it. “It was not something I purchased to decorate my office,” she said. “It was a left-behind trinket that became part of the woodwork. … I never sat and looked and fixated on it, like it was part of some medieval mindset.”
Zon also told the newspaper that Young’s case was particularly heinous and the death penalty was warranted.
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
