Samuel David Crowe, 47, of Douglasville, who pleaded guilty to the 1988 murder and robbery of a Wickes Lumber Company store manager, has been scheduled for execution May 22.

“The Attorney General’s office called Wednesday to petition for Crowe’s execution date,” Douglas County District Attorney David McDade said Thursday. “Judge Robert James set the execution for Thursday, May 22, two weeks away.”

Crowe’s execution would be the second in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections. William Earl Lynd was executed at the Jackson correctional facility Tuesday.

According to court records and past newspaper accounts from the Douglas County Sentinel, Crowe, 27 at the time, went to Wickes Lumber in Douglasville at closing time on March 2, 1988. He encountered the manager, Joseph Pala, 39, who was in the process of closing the store and putting the day’s receipts into a floor safe.

“Pala let Crowe in because he recognized Crowe as a former employee,” McDade said.

Crowe robbed Pala, then shot him in the back with a .44-caliber handgun and beat him over the head with a crowbar and a can of paint to make sure he was dead, according to testimony. Store employees found Pala’s body the next morning.

Crowe was arrested by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office the following day after eyewitnesses described a car leaving the scene that fit the description of Crowe’s wife’s car. Investigators found paint from the store on the pedals of the vehicle.

Crowe pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery, and Superior Court Judge Robert James left the punishment to a jury. In November 1989, the jury voted to impose the death penalty.

At his sentencing hearing, Crowe’s attorney, Michael Bergen, argued that the killing was a crime of passion caused by Pala’s threat to tell Crowe’s wife, a Wickes employee, about Crowe’s drug problems.

In his confession, Crowe admitted to having drug and financial problems and going to the store to rob Pala of $1,100. Sixteen character witnesses testified that Crowe had been a church music minister and was a good person caught up in bad circumstances.

Frank Winn, the Douglas County district attorney at that time, countered that just because Crowe had helped people in the past did not negate the act of murder he’d committed. Winn said Crowe went to the store to get money to buy drugs, and that Pala’s life meant nothing to Crowe.

Crowe’s case has already exhausted regular appeals with state and federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal on April 21. If executed, he would become the 19th inmate put to death in Georgia by lethal injection.

Crowe’s attorney, Ann Fort, said she would appeal for clemency before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles and might also seek a last-minute intervention from the courts.