ATLANTA - A Georgia prison inmate who has refused to

challenge his death sentence was set to be executed Tuesday for

leading a violent robbery that left a woman and her 3-year-old

daughter slain at their Paulding County home.

Nicholas Cody Tate was scheduled to be put to death by injection

at 7 p.m. in the state prison in Jackson for the murders of

Chrissie Williams and her daughter Katelyn.

His case presents a host of challenges to Georgia's legal system

because it has moved rapidly through the death penalty process.

That's because Tate has refused to challenge his conviction and

death sentence through habeas corpus appeals, a process that could

have postponed his execution for years.

Tate's attorneys last week abandoned an attempt to have the

condemned man's brother file an appeal on his behalf, and the

pardons board on Monday rejected his request for clemency. It's

unclear whether the lawyers will file the last-minute appeals to

state and federal courts that are typical in these cases.

The likeliest route for Tate to halt his execution is to file

the habeas appeal, and he has given no indication he will do so.

His current and former attorneys won't comment on why the

31-year-old won't let them file the appeals, but Tate's remarks at

a 2009 hearing reveal his some of his thoughts.

"You caught me red-handed," he said during the hearing, when

he waived his motion for a new trial. "None of my rights were

violated ... I choose to waive any and all future appeals."

Friends and family of the victims were hopeful the execution

would not be delayed.

"Justice needs to be served," said Kellie Young, Chrissie's

older sister.

Court records detail how Nicholas Tate and two of his younger

brothers, Dustin and Chad, purchased ammunition, duct tape and

knives at a sporting goods store in December 2001 and then sought

out Chrissie Williams' home because they believed she had a stash

of drugs and cash.

The men knocked on the door and when Katelyn answered, chaos

ensued. Tate ordered his brother Chad to silence the girl. Chad

Tate unsuccessfully tried to strangle her with a telephone cord,

and he then used Nicholas' knife to slit her throat. His other

brother, Dustin, fled the house in fear. Before leaving, Nicholas

Tate put a seat cushion over Chrissie's head and fired one shot

through the pillow to kill her.

The brothers fled to Mississippi, kidnapping a 23-year-old woman

from a gas station. They released her but kept the car as they sped

toward Oklahoma. There, the brothers contacted their parents in

Dallas, Ga. and soon negotiated their surrender to police.

Tate's two brothers were sentenced to life in prison for their

roles in the violence. But Nicholas Tate, who prosecutors said was

the ringleader, was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to

murder charges in November 2005.

He filed a motion for a new trial a year later, but in 2009 had

a change of heart. That's when he said he wanted to waive all

future appeals, and the judge accepted his request, finding him to

be coherent and articulate. Even so, his attorneys went ahead with

a direct appeal, and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected their

arguments.

Young said she and other relatives of the victims planned to

travel on Tuesday to the state prison in Jackson to be there when

Tate is executed.

"What they done was cruel. They went into her house, where she

thought she was safe, and took her and her child," she said.

"Only animals do that. What they did was devastating to her

family."