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Governor agrees to extradition Web posted Monday, June
9, 2003
By Sandy
Hodson | Staff Writer
South Carolina's governor has cleared the way for
William "Junior" Downs to stand trial in Augusta on child murder
charges.
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than 12 years after James Porter was found dead in the Savannah
River, Mr. Downs will be arraigned July 3 in Richmond County
Superior Court. He faces charges of murder, kidnapping, aggravated
assault and necrophilia.
District Attorney Danny Craig received news of Gov. Mark
Sanford's agreement Friday to sign an executive agreement, which
allows for the temporary transfer of Mr. Downs from South Carolina's
death row to Augusta.
The death of 10-year-old James had been wrongly classified as an
accidental drowning after his body was found in May 1991, two months
after he disappeared. It wasn't until Mr. Downs was charged with the
May 17, 1999, sexual assault and murder of a 6-year-old North
Augusta child that police say he confessed to killing both children.
South Carolina declined to allow Georgia to extradite Mr. Downs
while he faced capital murder charges in South Carolina for killing
Keenan O'Mailia. After Mr. Downs pleaded guilty and was sentenced to
death in June 2002, extradition efforts were stalled.
On Friday, Mr. Sanford signed the paperwork to allow for the
return of Mr. Downs, 36, for trial.
Next month's arraignment in Richmond County Superior Court will
be the first step in his pending death penalty case in James' death.
The transfer of a death row inmate from one state to another is a
first for South Carolina, according to Mr. Sanford's extradition
officer.
"This is a first for us, too," Mr. Craig said Monday. Where Mr.
Downs will be housed while awaiting trial, in Augusta or at the
South Carolina death row facility in Ridgeville, is one of the
details still to be worked out, he said.
Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.
--From the Tuesday, June 10, 2003 printed
edition of the Augusta Chronicle |
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