Across Georgia

Death row inmate loses appeal request

ATLANTA - A man convicted of killing an Augusta pizza manager 14 years ago has lost another round in a bid to overturn his death sentence.

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the rejection by lower courts of Mark Howard McClain's habeas corpus petition challenging his death sentence.

McClain shot Kevin Scott Brown, the manager of a Domino's Pizza on Washington Road, and stole about $100 early the morning of Nov. 20, 1994.

On appeal, he claimed his lawyer provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to adequately investigate mitigating evidence for the penalty phase of the trial.

Emory forgives $20 million of Grady Hospital debt

ATLANTA - Emory University officials say they have forgiven $20 million of the debt owed by cash-strapped Grady Memorial Hospital.

Grady provides most of the trauma services and indigent care to metro Atlanta. Hospital officials say other hospitals should help, since they would be flooded with indigent clients and have to provide their own trauma care if Grady did not exist.

Pete Correll, head of the Grady board of directors, says Grady officials met this week with the heads of several metro Atlanta hospitals to request that they contribute $30 million to help the safety-net facility over the next few years.

Correll says Grady still owes Emory about $44 million. Emory's medical school provides many doctors who work at Grady, which has not been able to pay for them for years.

Missing man in south Ga. found dead

BLACKSHEAR, Ga. - Authorities in south Georgia are investigating the death of a Pierce County man who disappeared over the weekend and was found slain three days later in a wooded area.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the body of 52-year-old Wendell Bruce Connell of Blackshear was found Tuesday morning by friends searching for him after he was reported missing the previous day. The GBI says the investigation indicates that Connell was seen last on Saturday.

An autopsy at the GBI Crime Lab revealed the death was a homicide, but the cause has not been released.

The GBI and Pierce County Sheriff's Office are investigating, with help from the Blackshear Police Department and Georgia State Patrol Aviation Unit

Corvette chased by police crashes, 2 killed

ATLANTA - A yellow Corvette chased by a state trooper careened off an exit ramp Thursday, killing both occupants in a fiery crash that brought traffic to a standstill on the main interstate thoroughfare through downtown Atlanta.

The trooper spotted the 2008 Corvette speeding and making an abrupt lane change on Interstate 20 just southwest of downtown about 2 p.m., Georgia State Patrol spokesman Lt. Paul Cosper said.

The trooper chased the car with its lights flashing as it exited onto the I-85/I-75 Connector and headed north through the heart of the city.

The Corvette raced across several lanes of traffic onto an HOV exit ramp at Piedmont Avenue, went over a wall and fell into southbound exit lanes below, Cosper said.

"The trooper was unable to safely get over to the HOV lane, (then) gets over to the right and sees a plume of smoke coming up to his left," he said.

Investigators were trying to identify the two occupants and determine if the Corvette was stolen.

Bryan Gunter, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the northbound and southbound exit ramps were closed just as the afternoon rush hour was about to begin.

The ramps were reopened by 5 p.m. after being judged safe by DOT maintenance personnel, Gunter said, but rush-hour traffic continued to be slowed, especially southbound.