A Georgia defendant, Willie James Hall, set to be executed tomorrow is asking the court to change his sentence from death to life.

Update: Willie James Hall got his commutation today. He will not be killed tomorrow.

One day before Willie James Hall was scheduled to die by lethal injection, the death sentence of the 47-year-old convicted murderer was commuted to life in prison without parole.

On Monday, six of the jurors offered sworn statements to the parole board that they would have given Hall life without parole if that sentence had been an option at his trial, said Heather Hedrick, a spokeswoman for the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan also told parole board members Monday during a two-hour clemency hearing that he was comfortable with a sentence of life without parole. The parole board also noted that Hall had excellent behavior in prison and no criminal record before the murder.

On a related note, an inmate in Chicago who was 14 at the time of his crime is seeking clemency:

The evidence that convicted Johnny Lee Savory of a Peoria double murder and sent him to prison in 1977, at the age of 14, has been debated ever since. Even the higher courts that have reviewed his case can't agree.

The Illinois Supreme Court, for instance, has said the physical evidence against Savory is weak and almost irrelevant compared with strong testimony from acquaintances who say Savory confided key details of the crime to them.

Savory is seeking DNA testing. His lawyers say it could prove his innocence. The state is objecting. Check out this comment by the prosecutor:

"Most prosecutors have been down this tired old road so many times that it has well-worn treads in it," he said. "The defense constantly takes their cup and scrapes it across the cage. They say: `Mr. Lyons, why won't you do this? Why won't you do this testing?' But even if we have testing in this, it wouldn't tell us anything. It would just be one more item. ... In this case it's not a pivotal issue." (emphasis our's).