Georgia Board Denies Clemency, Execution Scheduled

Clemency was denied Friday to a Georgia man, Brandon Joseph Rhode, condemned for a 1998 triple murder. A little more than 12 years ago, Rhode set out to burglarize the home of Steven and Gerri Moss. Rhode and an accomplice, also on death row, then systematically murdered three members of the Moss family.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, eleven-year-old Bryan Moss came home from school while the burglary was in progress. The boy could see the two men through a front window as they were ransacking the house. The boy, armed with a baseball bat, came in through the back, but he was subdued by Rhode and his accomplice Daniel Lucas, who were both armed.

They put Byran in a chair as they discussed what to do with him. They were still talking about their options when Lucas shot him in the shoulder.

Moments later, 15-year-old Kristin Moss was seen coming up to the house, so Lucas took Bryan to a back bedroom while Rhode waited for the boy’s sister. Rhode put her in the same chair and shot the teenager twice. Simultaneously, Lucas, in the back with Bryan, shot him again.

Rhode shot and killed the children's father when he got to the house and they shot the children several more times to be certain they were dead.

The Journal-Constitution reported that Rhode's execution is scheduled for 7 p.m., September 21, 2010. Only the courts or the Pardons and Paroles Board can stop an execution in Georgia. Rhode would be the 25th person in Georgia to die by lethal injection and the 48th the state has executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

To read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/clemency-denied-rhode-scheduled-615455.html