Ga. executes man for 1992 killing of his mother’s friend

Terrell is scheduled for execution on December 8, 2015, at 7 p.m.at the state prison in Jackson, Department of Corrections Commissioner Homer Bryson said Monday, Nov. 23, in a statement.

State officials said 47-year-old Brian Keith Terrell was executed at 12:52 am Wednesday morning at the state prison in Jackson.

He was put to death for the 1992 robbery and murder of John Watson in Newton County.

The case relied on testimony from Terrell’s cousin, who said Terrell told him he had killed Watson. Prosecutors say Terrell was supposed to return the money but instead shot Watson multiple times and severely beat him.

Terrell had declined to request a last meal and would be offered the standard menu of chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, bread pudding and fruit punch, corrections officials said. Terrell was convicted of stealing checks from and then killing a friend of his mother.

He was originally scheduled to be executed in March, but the state called it off after realizing its lethal injection drug had particles floating in it.

Terrell was the fifth person put to death in Georgia this year, the center said. Terrell’s second trial resulted in a conviction and death sentence; however, the Georgia Supreme Court subsequently reversed the conviction due to an error in jury selection. The 11th U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to halt the execution after a federal court on Tuesday rejected that challenge. They argued that no physical evidence connected Terrell to the killing and that prosecutors had used false and misleading testimony to secure the conviction that drew the death penalty.

Georgia on Wednesday executed a man convicted within the 1992 homicide of a family pal, state officers stated, after he misplaced appeals based mostly on the drug for use in a deadly injection. In his third trial, Terrell was sentenced to death. The state has taken precautions to prevent that from happening again and would not proceed with an execution if a problem with the drug was discovered, state lawyers have said.