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Georgia set to execute its oldest death row inmate
The Globe and Mail ^ | February 2, 2016 | Kate Brumback

Posted on 02/02/2016 2:08:51 PM PST by rickmichaels

Georgia’s oldest death row inmate, who was convicted in the 1979 killing of a convenience store manager, is set to be executed Tuesday.

Brandon Astor Jones, 72, is scheduled to be put to death by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the shooting death of Cobb County convenience store manager Roger Tackett.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, on Monday declined to grant clemency for Jones. As is its custom, the board did not give any reason for the denial.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal that claimed Jones’ death sentence is disproportionate to the crime.

Also Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to give a full-court hearing to a challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s execution secrecy law. The law classifies as a confidential state secret the identity of any person or entity involved in an execution, including the drug producer.

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: brandonastorjones; cobbcounty; georgia; rogertackett
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1 posted on 02/02/2016 2:08:51 PM PST by rickmichaels
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To: rickmichaels

He would have only have been in his late 30s if they didn’t wait so long.


2 posted on 02/02/2016 2:10:36 PM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Sign up for my new release e-mail and get my first novel for free)
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To: rickmichaels

36 plus years, really?

Can’t lawyers work any faster than that?

Boy, that billing by the hour really pays off doesn’t it?


3 posted on 02/02/2016 2:11:00 PM PST by txnativegop (Tired of liberals, even a few in my own family.)
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To: rickmichaels

Good riddance to this oxygen wasting murderer.

Should have been gone a long time ago.

may God have mercy on your soul.


4 posted on 02/02/2016 2:11:09 PM PST by Dacula (Southern lives matter!)
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To: rickmichaels

Going on 37 years. Probably millions of dollars, countless thousands of hours spent on pushing through appeals, tricks and ploys to keep the man alive. Was the convenience store clerk he murdered even 37 years old? Probably not.


5 posted on 02/02/2016 2:11:27 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: rickmichaels

Here in CA Death Row is where they send you to be executed by natural causes.


6 posted on 02/02/2016 2:12:28 PM PST by Hugin ("First thing--get yourself a firearm!" Sheriff Ed Galt, Last Man St anding.)
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To: rickmichaels
Brandon Astor Jones was sentenced to death for the June 17, 1979 murder of 29-year-old gas station manager Roger Tackett. Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon were arrested at the scene after an officer just happened to drive up and heard gunshots. In the storeroom, the officer found Tackett’s body. He had been shot in the arms and legs and beaten before the fatal shot was fired into his skull.

tax dollar savings begin at 12:01.

7 posted on 02/02/2016 2:12:42 PM PST by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Trump/Cruz 2016 or the other way around.)
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To: rickmichaels

The murder took place around 37 years ago so the 72 year old perp would have been a sprightly 35 when he committed the crime. Can’t get too tore up about this.


8 posted on 02/02/2016 2:14:23 PM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: txnativegop

It won’t be much longer until the Supreme Court does the bidding of it’s globalist masters and bans the death penalty entirely. That die has already been cast IMHO.


9 posted on 02/02/2016 2:15:13 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog

let us hope not


10 posted on 02/02/2016 2:17:46 PM PST by txnativegop (Tired of liberals, even a few in my own family.)
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To: rickmichaels

This makes a mockery of the sentence. 37 years later? Really?


11 posted on 02/02/2016 2:20:30 PM PST by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: jmaroneps37

Gets worse. A Fed Judge threw out the original conviction in 1987 because the Prosecutor mentioned God several times during the testimony. Had to re-try the murderer all over.


12 posted on 02/02/2016 2:28:34 PM PST by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: rickmichaels

What is criminal is the length of time he was on death row; if it was to be an abortion the demand would have been just weeks and no more than a few months.


13 posted on 02/02/2016 2:31:50 PM PST by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: rickmichaels

He was convicted and sentenced in 1979
and has been appealing the conviction since then
but his options have run out.
-
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-supreme-court/1084910.html
-
The victim, Roger Tackett, was the manager of a Tenneco convenience store.
On June 16, 1979, he arrived at the store at 11:20 p.m. to close it for the night.
After the other employees left, Tackett remained at the store to complete some paperwork.
At approximately 1:45 a.m., Officer Kendall of the Cobb County police department
drove a stranded motorist to the Tenneco parking lot so she could use a pay phone.
Officer Kendall observed a car (Tackett’s) parked in front of the store
with the driver’s-side door open;
the lights were also still on inside the store.
Since the Tenneco store was in his regular patrol area,
Brandon Jones stick his head out of the storeroom door at the back of the store,
look around (apparently without seeing the officer),
and then close the storeroom door.
Officer Kendall entered through the unlocked front door
and heard three shots, a pause, and then a fourth shot.
He drew his weapon and after shouting ‘police, come on out’
without a response, approached the storeroom door and opened it.
Jones and his co-defendant, Van Roosevelt Solomon, were standing just inside the door.
Officer Kendall ordered them into the main store area,
where he searched them and handcuffed Jones.
He placed Solomon in his patrol car since he only had one set of handcuffs,
and called for assistance on the radio.
He also informed both defendants of their rights under Miranda v. Arizona.
A private security officer, Alex Woolyard, heard Officer Kendall’s request for assistance
on a police scanner and arrived first.
He loaned Officer Kendall a set of handcuffs to restrain Solomon
and watched the defendants while Officer Kendall investigated a van parked nearby.
During this time, Woolyard spoke with Jones and determined that
the car parked in front of the store did not belong to them;
they had arrived in the van. Upon continued questioning by Woolyard,
Jones stated that they had come to burglarize the store
and found a man who was ‘bad hurt’ in the back of the store.
After handcuffing Jones to a metal pole, Woolyard and Officer Kendall
entered the store and discovered that the storeroom door
had locked when it shut as the defendants exited.
They used a crowbar to break open the door and they found Tackett’s body
lying face-down at one end of the narrow storeroom
(Officer Kendall had not seen the victim when he first encountered the defendants
in the storeroom since he did not enter the storeroom at that time).
Tackett had been shot five times from behind, once in the jaw,
once behind the left ear, once in the thumb, and twice in the right hip.
The medical examiner determined that the fatal shot was the ‘loose contact’ shot
behind the left ear since that bullet penetrated the brain;
this shot was probably the final shot and was fired while the victim was lying on the ground.
Two .38 caliber revolvers were found in an open box
next to where Officer Kendall had first encountered the defendants.
A large Smith and Wesson contained two spent shells;
a smaller Colt contained four spent shells.
Four .38 caliber bullets were recovered at the scene or in the victim’s body;
the ballistics expert determined that all were probably fired by the Colt.


14 posted on 02/02/2016 2:31:55 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (I was conceived in liberty, how about you?)
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To: txnativegop

and how much did it cost us to keep this pos alive?


15 posted on 02/02/2016 2:33:45 PM PST by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

So basically this criminal has lived way past his expiration date.


16 posted on 02/02/2016 2:34:46 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature
Partner was executed by electric chair in 1985, if anyone’s curious. Not sure how this guy got to live an extra thirty years. Hopefully he's spent it usefully.
17 posted on 02/02/2016 2:37:52 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: rickmichaels

35 years of free room and board.


18 posted on 02/02/2016 2:38:35 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: rickmichaels

Smallest violin - with tears....

19 posted on 02/02/2016 2:42:25 PM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

The poor man really suffered.


20 posted on 02/02/2016 2:44:59 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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