Former death row inmate William Moore spoke yesterday at the Georgetown University Law Center about his experience on Georgia’s death row.The event entitled “A Conversation with Billy Moore” was hosted by The American Law Criminal Review and provided students with a chance to hear firsthand what it is like to be on “death watch.””I was told by another inmate that I must have been the dumbest guy on death row,” Moore said. “Who pleads guilty to a murder?”In the days leading up to what would have been his execution, Moore described waiting in the “death-watch cell” and the guards escorting him to the execution room in preparation for his final day.”[The guard] said I needed to see exactly what the electric chair looked like before being executed, so he snatched off the white sheet, and said `Look at it . Appreciate the beauty of the chair now because in three days, you won’t,'” Moore said.Arrested in 1974 at age 22 for, while intoxicated, robbing and murdering Fred Stapleton, Moore plead guilty, a choice determined by his personal opinions and his lawyer’s advice. According to Moore, his lawyer believed pleading guilty would lead to a lesser sentence. Instead, he spent nearly 17 years on death row.With only seven hours remaining before his execution, his death sentence was halted in order for the court to hear his appeal again. His sentence was then commuted to life in prison, largely due to the testimony of the victim’s family in his favor, making him the only man to have been released from death row in Georgia. He was released from prison on parole in 1991 and has been a free man for the last 17 years.oore said that inmates on death row, while already considered dead to the state, could genuinely benefit from the efforts of rehabilitation. Moore understands his survival, he said, as a case of rehabilitation through religion and the help of the Stapleton’s Christian relatives. He said that he apologized to and kept in close contact with Stapleton’s family while he sat on death row.Following Moore’s account of his story, a question-and-answer session began, during which the approximately 25 law students in attendance were particularly interested in the ways that attorneys can best approach death row inmates and what can be done to further improve the learning and rehabilitation process.”Inmates have vital information,” Moore said, “but they need to trust you. They won’t casually tell you that they were molested, but that could be one piece of information that could save them.”In terms of rehabilitating death row inmates, Moore said that an important factor is the inmates’ communication with the outside world. According to Moore, education, maturation and rehabilitation are crucial for inmates’ ability to rejoin society.”People grow up in prison, on death row,” he said. “There are 25- to 30-year-old adults who enter with 15- to 16-year-old thought processes.””