( CNN ) -- Two hours before his scheduled execution Thursday , the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted the death sentence of Samuel David Crowe , his lawyer said . Samuel David Crowe 's death sentence was changed to life in prison by Georgia authorities , his attorney says . Crowe was convicted in 1988 of murdering Joseph V. Pala , the retail manager at Wicks Lumber Company in Douglas County . Crowe admitted to the crime . The board 's ruling means Crowe 's sentence will be changed to life without the possibility of parole . The board did not give a reason for its decision . When attorney Ann Fort called Crowe with the news , he was quiet . `` He was really shocked and relieved but very somber about it . He takes very seriously the deep harm that he caused when he committed this crime , '' she said . Crowe had a cocaine habit that his attorney says he kicked in prison . He spent his time behind bars counseling other inmates , teaching some of them to read and writing to people outside of prison who had drug habits . `` He did n't want them to go down the path he did , '' Fort said . As for the Pala family , they are devastated . The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Pala 's widow , Fran Pala , and his daughter , Lisa Pala-Hansen , were too upset to address the parole board . A representative spoke to the board on their behalf , the newspaper said . Crowe had been scheduled to be executed by injection at 7 p.m . ET Thursday at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson , 45 minutes south of Atlanta . He would have been the 19th inmate in Georgia executed by injection . William Earl Lynd was executed by injection the first week in May . He was the first inmate to die in the state since September , when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination represented cruel and unusual punishment . Lynd was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 1988 . The U.S. Supreme Court had effectively halted all executions in the country last September , when it agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination used by most states violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment . Death penalty opponents have argued that if inmates are not given enough anesthetic , they could be conscious enough to suffer excruciating pain without being able to express it because of the paralyzer . Their claims are supported by medical studies . Of the 24 death sentences the Georgia board has considered , Crowe 's is the third it has commuted . Also this week , Mississippi executed murderer Earl Wesley Berry by lethal injection . Berry confessed to abducting Mary Bounds in 1987 , beating her to death and then dumping her body in a rural road . The courts rejected Berry 's attorneys ' arguments that he should be spared because he was mentally retarded . CNN 's Ashley Fantz contributed to this report .
NEW : Attorney says inmate was shocked , relieved , somber . NEW : Victim 's family too devastated to address parole board . Samuel David Crowe 's death sentence was changed to life in prison Thursday . Comment: