Georgia: Many of slain woman's family members support clemency for her killer, lawyers say

Many family members of a woman fatally shot in 1990 support clemency for her condemned killer, lawyers for Keith "Bo" Tharpe argue in a petition seeking clemency on the eve of Tharpe's scheduled execution.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole is set to consider Tharpe's case Monday, the 27th anniversary of Jacqueline Freeman's killing in Jones County. Freeman was Tharpe's sister-in-law.

Lawyers for Tharpe are asking that his execution - set for Tuesday - be stayed and that his sentence be commuted to life without the possibility of parole.

The copy of Tharpe's clemency application released to the media Friday after being declassified doesn't list which of Freeman's family members support clemency.

The portion of the document addressing their support was redacted "to protect the victims' and victims' family members' identities and privacy," according to the application.

Tharpe's application describes his early introduction to alcohol, drug addiction and remorse.

According to the application:

When jurors convicted Tharpe and sentenced him to death - just 3 months after Freeman's Sept. 25, 1990 killing - they didn't hear about his childhood, drug addiction or "limited intellectual abilities" that would have provided context for understanding how someone others described as being "kind, loving and generous" could kill his sister-in-law.

Tharpe's mother admitted in an affidavit that she drank moonshine and beer daily while pregnant with her son.

Both of Tharpe's parents drank "excessively" and ran an illegal moonshine business - a shot house - out of their home. At age 5, Tharpe began serving the homemade alcohol to customers and taking sips himself.

By the time he was 10, Tharpe was drinking enough liquor to make him drunk enough to lose consciousness. His early exposure to alcohol impaired his development.

Despite his childhood, Tharpe has been described as being a "friendly, outgoing, happy and athletic child" who had many friends and was a standout high school athlete.

He married his high school sweetheart and the couple shared 4 children. Tharpe had another daughter from a previous relationship.

Later, Tharpe became addicted to crack cocaine which led to his alienating his family and losing himself in the drug culture.

In August 1990, Tharpe's wife took their children and left him. Tharpe was desperate to win his family back, but his wife's relatives were protective of her and wanted him to stay away.

On the night before Freeman's murder, Tharpe drank and smoked crack until the early morning hours.

Then, he drove toward the Freeman family's home where several family members had homes and his wife was staying.

He encountered his wife and Freeman on the road leading to the family's property, stopped them and told his wife to get into his truck. Tharpe and Freeman argued. Then Tharpe shot Freeman with a shotgun, reloaded and shot her again.

"To this day, Mr. Tharpe cannot fathom what came over him and caused him to act as he did and kill Mrs. Freeman," his lawyers wrote in the application. "It is an act for which he takes full responsibility and will regret every day for the rest of his life."

Tharpe regularly talks about his remorse and has endeavored to live a Christian life, devoted to helping others learn from his mistakes, his lawyers argue.

Tharpe's lawyers are continuing to appeal his conviction and death sentence alleging that 1 member of the juror voted for the death penalty due to racial prejudice.

Source: Macon Telegraph, September 23, 2017

Georgia Set To Execute Second Inmate Of 2017

Keith Leroy Tharpe, 59, was convicted in the 1990 shotgun killing of his sister-in-law and of kidnapping and assaulting his estranged wife.

A Georgia man convicted of killing his sister-in-law with a shotgun then kidnapping and sexually assaulting his estranged wife has been scheduled for execution on Tuesday.

Keith Leroy Tharpe, 59, would become the 2nd person executed by lethal injection in Georgia this year and the 71st person put to death in the state since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.

That is a slower pace than 2016, when Georgia executed 9 condemned inmates.

According to court documents, Tharpe, on Sept. 24, 1990, met up with his estranged wife and sister-in-law in middle Georgia's Jones County, using his vehicle to block them then getting out brandishing a shotgun. Apparently under the influence of drugs, Tharpe, who had repeatedly threatened his wife and her family with violence, shot his sister-in-law - 29-year-old Jacquelin Freeman - with the shotgun, rolled her into a ditch, reloaded and shot her again.

He then kidnapped his wife. After unsuccessfully trying to rent a motel room, he parked by the side of a road and raped her, court documents say. Afterward, he drove her to Macon, where she was supposed to get money from her credit union.

Instead, she called police.

On January 18, 1991, Tharpe was sentenced to death after a Jones County jury found him guilty of malice murder and 2 counts of kidnapping with bodily injury.

Tharpe is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Lawyers for Tharpe have petitioned the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency in the case.

The petition says Tharpe was addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol when he committed the crimes - addictions he has overcome while in prison.

"Without in any way discounting or minimizing Mrs. Freeman's death and the pain caused by Mr. Tharpe's crime, we ask the Board to consider who Mr. Tharpe is today: a man full of remorse, living every day guided by his faith, respect, and good will, who strives to put as much good into the world as he can, which he will continue to do if allowed to live out the remainder of his natural life in prison," the petition reads.

The document notes that at least some of Freeman's family members support clemency in the case and that his conviction and sentence possibly were tainted by racism, citing a jury member who was quoted using a racial slur when referring to Tharpe.

Tharpe would become the 48th inmate put to death since Georgia switched to lethal injection. There are presently 56 men under death sentence in Georgia.

Death row inmate J.W. "Boy" Ledford was the last prisoner executed in Georgia, on May 17.

Source: patch.com, September 23, 2017

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde