[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 1




GEORGIA----impending execution

Parole Board Denies Clemency for Georgia Inmate


The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied a clemency request from the 
state's oldest death row inmate.

The board announced its decision Monday after holding a hearing on the request 
from Brandon Astor Jones. The 72-year-old is scheduled for execution at 7 p.m. 
Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson.

The parole board is the only entity in Georgia with the authority to commute a 
death sentence.

Jones was convicted in the 1979 killing of Cobb County convenience store 
manager Roger Tackett.

A federal judge granted Jones a new sentencing hearing because jurors had 
improperly been allowed to bring a Bible into the deliberation room. He was 
resentenced to death in 1997.

Another man convicted in the killing, Van Roosevelt Solomon, was executed in 
1985.

(source: Associated Press)