ATLANTA (AP) — The state of Georgia is appealing a judge’s ruling that stayed the execution of a man who killed an 8-year-old girl and raped her 10-year-old friend 46 years ago.
Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. abducted and attacked the two girls as they walked home from school in Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, in May 1976.
He was scheduled to be put to death Tuesday at 7 p.m., but a judge on Monday issued an order staying the execution.
The state filed a notice of appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday.
