Georgia inmate wants court to reconsider appeal

A 72-year-old man convicted of killing a convenience store manager in a robbery more than 30 years ago has been executed. The Georgia Department of Corrections says Jones recorded a final statement and accepted a final prayer.

There were a flurry of court filings in the final hours – including last-minute appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court – as his attorneys rushed to stop his execution for the 1979 murder of Roger Tackett, who managed a Tenneco convenience store and gas station in Cobb County. A resentencing trial in 1997 ended with Jones again sentenced to death. The high court also denied Jones’ request for a stay of execution.

The execution came about two weeks before the planned execution of convicted murderer Travis Clinton Hittson, set for February 17.

The state of Georgia will put the death its oldest inmate convicted in connection with a murder in 1979. According to NBC News, the court voted 6-5 not to hear the convict’s appeal.

At 12:46 a.m. Wednesday, Jones, just 10 days shy of his 73rd birthday, took his last breath, ending a decades-long journey for the daughter and widow of the man he murdered in 1979.

Jones also lost on Monday before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles despite his argument that the death sentence for this particular crime was disproportionate.

Jones later told another officer: “There is a man in the back – hurt bad”.

A federal appeals court has rejected a death row inmate’s challenge to Georgia’s law that shields the identity of the producer of its execution drug.

In the past, botched executions have raised questions about whether lethal injection can be considered “cruel and unusual punishment”, thus violating the Constitution. “But if he is, we will not know until it’s too late – if ever”, wrote Circuit Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum, adding that she believes the secrecy law denies Georgia death row inmates of their due process rights and may deprive them of their right to access to the courts.

Lawyer Daniel Kolber uses a megaphone to voice his opposition to the death penalty outside the prison where Jones was executed.

Solomon died on the electric chair in 1985.

A federal judge in 1989 granted Jones a new sentencing hearing because jurors had improperly been allowed to bring a Bible into the deliberation room. The United States executed 28 people past year, the lowest number since 1991.