JACKSON, Ga., Feb. 3 (UPI) — Brandon Astor Jones, 72, Georgia’s oldest death row inmate, was executed early Wednesday morning after a final denial of a stay of execution.
Jones was convicted in 1979 for the shooting death of Roger Tackett, a convenience store manager. Jones and co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon killed Tackett after breaking into the store. Solomon was executed by electric chair in 1985.
Jones was granted a new trial in 1989 after a federal court threw out the original conviction because a Bible was in the jurors’ deliberation room. A 1997 re-trial found him guilty.
Attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court last week, filing two requests for stays. Both requests were rejected without any recorded dissents.
Jones was executed by lethal injection at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga. Officials said he did not specify a menu for a last meal, but recorded a statement and said a final prayer.
There are now 75 men on Georgia’s death row. Four men and one woman were executed by the state in 2015.
