JACKSON — From the moment the alarm clock sounded to almost every glance at a clock Tuesday, I couldn’t help thinking: 14 hours until William Earl Lynd dies ... 10 and a half hours until William Earl Lynd dies ... eight hours, 15 minutes until William Earl Lynd dies ...

And with every click of the clock, I couldn’t help but know that Earl Lynd must be doing the same thing. Yet, with a dramatic difference. He must have been thinking: seven hours, 22 minutes until I die ... Five hours until I die ... Two and a half hours until I die ...

Since learning Monday afternoon I would be a witness to his execution, named the media monitor since I had covered Lynd’s trial in February 1990, the thought of what he must be thinking or doing lingered.

They say everyone has an appointed hour: The time they will die. But for the vast majority of folks, only the Lord knows that appointed hour. Few know the time they will die. Waking Tuesday morning, I thought my appointed hour could come before William Earl Lynd’s, but I won’t see it • coming. I will not have to go through the day knowing it will strike.

William Earl Lynd knew this day was coming for more than 18 years since being sentenced to death for the murder and kidnapping of his live-in girlfriend Ginger Moore in Berrien County, since traveling to Ohio where he caused the shooting death of Leslie JoAnn Starkey two days after • killing Moore, since surrendering to Berrien County Sheriff Jerry Brogdon on New Year’s Eve 1988.

For the past two weeks, however, William Earl Lynd knew his appointed hour: 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, 2008. The majority of his appeals exhausted. Earl Lynd’s appointed hour had been set and death loomed in the second hand with every click of the clock.

• Death watch

The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison is located on a vast tract of state-owned land, filled with lakes, ponds, wildlife, and tall pines. It is a beautiful location situated in Jackson, off Interstate 75, about 45 miles south of Atlanta.

From Georgia Highway 36, passersby cannot see the prison facility. A large sign tells visitors they have reached the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, but the prison facility is somewhere within the lush landscape, hidden by those tall trees.

Department of Corrections officials have prepared for large crowds. William Earl Lynd will be the first inmate in the nation executed since the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that lethal injection is constitutional. Driving onto the prison’s access road, correctional officers ask the drivers and passengers to state their business. Upon learning that business, the car will be directed to one of three designated areas roped off on the entrance’s grounds.

There is a section for the media, including the five media representatives tapped to witness the execution, and others who will remain in this partitioned field throughout the evening. A section has been partitioned for death-penalty opponents, who are expected to protest Lynd’s execution. Another section has been roped off for death-penalty supporters to applaud Lynd’s execution.

One media representative is a reporter from a nearby newspaper. Lynd’s execution will be the fourth one he’s witnessed through the years. He explains the death-penalty supporters and opponents. When the hearse leaves with the executed prisoner’s body, the protesters boo, and the supporters cheer. The rest of the time, the protesters and supporters typically yell at each other.

Despite it being the first in the nation following the Supreme Court decision, no supporters show, and only 11 protesters arrive to oppose the execution. They carry signs opposing the state killing people. Either through coincidence or inside information, the protesters observe a moment of silence, offer a prayer, at approximately the same moment the execution begins for William Earl Lynd.