The 5th Execution of 2016
Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Brandon Astor
Jones, 72, who was first sentenced to death in 1979 for the death
of Roger Tackett, who managed a convenience store, reported the Washington Post.
Jones was executed at 12:46 a.m. on February 3, 2016, state
corrections officials said. He took a final prayer and recorded a statement,
they said.
He was sentenced to death after being charged in Tackett’s
death more than three decades ago. A Cobb County police officer had said
that he saw Jones close the door to a room in the back of the convenience store
and, not long after, heard four gunshots, according to a Georgia Supreme Court
summary of the case. The officer said he went into the room and
found Jones and another man, Van Roosevelt Solomon. A short time later,
authorities found Tackett’s body; he had been shot five times, and two
revolvers were found.
Jones was initially convicted and sentenced to death,
but a district court vacated that sentence because a Bible was allowed in
the jury deliberation room. A resentencing trial in 1997 ended with Jones again
sentenced to death.
Jones declined to ask for a specific last meal, state
officials said, and so was given what is known as the institutional tray (which
includes chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens and
cornbread).
This execution is the first in Georgia this year and
the fifth nationwide so far in 2016. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated
the death penalty in 1976, Georgia is among the leading capital
punishment states, with only Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida and
Missouri executing more inmates over that span.
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