Death row inmate set to die next month in killing of Georgia corrections officer

The convicted killer of a Georgia corrections officer is set to die by lethal injection on May 3.

Robert Earl Butts Jr. is on death row for the slaying of off-duty officer Donovan Corey Parks, 24, during a carjacking in Baldwin County in March of 1996.

Parks, who worked at Rivers Correctional Institution, was shot in the back of the head and was found lying face-down on Felton Drive in Milledgeville.

Trial evidence showed that Butts and Marion “Murdock” Wilson were behind Parks as he bought cat food at the Milledgeville Walmart.

Outside the store, they asked for a ride and then forced Parks to drive to the side street off Ga. 49.

Parks’ father, Freddie Parks, had attended church with his son that day and later found his body in a puddle of blood.

“I had no idea it was my own son,” he testified at trial.

Parks’ burning 1992 Acura Vigor was later discovered behind a Huddle House in east Macon.

Butts and Marion “Murdock” Wilson, noted Folks gang members, were charged with murder, armed robbery, carjacking and possession of a sawed-off shotgun in the case.

Wilson also was sentenced to death in 1997 and remains on death row, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website.

Monday, the Superior Court of Baldwin County set a seven-day window for Butts’ execution that expires at noon May 10.

According to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Butts has exhausted his direct appeals and state and federal habeas corpus proceedings

This story was originally published April 16, 2018 at 12:44 PM with the headline "Death row inmate set to die next month in killing of Georgia corrections officer."