Editorial: Justice delayed is justice denied

On March 1, 1979, Billy Joe Magwood waited outside the Coffee County Jail for Sheriff Neil Grantham to show up for work. When the sheriff arrived, Magwood approached him with a pistol and shot him three times.

Grantham died, and Magwood was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

More than 30 years later, Magwood is still on Death Row with an active appeal; the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear one argument his attorneys have set forth — whether it’s too late for Magwood to challenge the legality of his death sentence.

From a legal perspective, it’s a sticky wicket. There is a question whether Magwood’s case met the necessary requirements for the death penalty in his original sentencing. Or in his resentencing in 1986, in which he was also condemned. The Supreme Court is expected to determine whether Magwood’s challenge almost three decades after the fact is too late.

If one can be completely disengaged from the matter, the Magwood case may seem like an interesting study in the minutiae of legal proceedings.

However, we find it difficult to disengage from the undisputed facts of the crime. Magwood lay in wait for Sheriff Grantham and killed him in broad daylight. A court of law sentenced him to death, yet Magwood has lived on Death Row longer than the life he lived before he killed the sheriff.

The Supreme Court should put an end to Magwood’s endless appeals and clear the way for his execution.

Billy Joe Magwood has had 30 years to ensure he was treated justly.

Now it’s time justice is delivered to Neil Grantham, his family and the people of the Wiregrass.