Death Penalty News

Troy Davis' execution was the fifth scheduled this year. Each raises hard questions about the death penalty. Defense attorney Steve Bright, who arguably knows more about the death penalty than anyone in Georgia, likes to tell a story about former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder. In the four years Wilder was the state's top executive, he commuted only two death sentences. One was for a man named Earl Washington. On Wilder's last day in office, Jan. 14, 1994, he signed an order that stated: "A review of the record ... demonstrate[s] that Earl Washington Jr. received a fair trial and his appeals were well represented and considered. Recently, newly discovered evidence has become available as the result of the initiatives of the Attorney General's Office. It is clear from precedent in past cases ... that there are no provisions under Virginia law whereby such newly discovered evidence can now be considered by the courts." The inability of the courts to consider...

Jack Alderman was executed in Georgia on the 16 September. He was sentenced to death in June 1975 for the murder of his wife, Barbara Jean Alderman, in 1974. He had been on death row for more than 30 years. On 15 September, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland issued a stay of execution, ordering that Jack Alderman's death sentence not be carried out until he had had a "meaningful" clemency hearing from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP). Prior to this, the BPP had refused to reconsider Jack Alderman's case after denying him clemency in October 2007. In June 2008, his lawyers asked the BPP to hold a clemency hearing, but it had refused. Following Judge Westmoreland's ruling, the BPP agreed to hold a hearing on 16 September, after which it denied clemency. Jack Alderman was put to death by lethal injection shortly after 7pm local time. The execution took about 14 minutes. There have been 21 executions in the USA this year, three of them ...

JACKSON — Convicted murderer Jack Alderman was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison. Alderman, 57, had been on death row in Georgia 34 years, longer than any other prisoner. He was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday. Alderman, who was convicted for the 1974 murder of his wife, Barbara Alderman, for $10,000 in insurance money, recorded a statement Tuesday “thanking everyone who made his life better, considering the circumstances,” said Georgia Department of Corrections spokesman Paul Czachowski. He did not release a copy of the recording, but paraphrased Alderman’s comment. Czachowski said Alderman did not make a special last meal request. At 4 p.m. Tuesday he was given the regular prison meal of baked fish, peas, cole slaw, carrots, cheese grits, bun, fruit juice and chocolate cake. “He barely touched it,” Czachowski said. He has “half a dozen” visitors at the prison Tuesday, but “none of his family are here as witnesses,” said Cz...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 JACKSON — Georgia’s longest-serving death row inmate was executed Tuesday in the slaying of his wife 34 years ago. Jack Alderman was pronounced dead at 7:25 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. The 57-year-old Alderman was sentenced to die by lethal injection in the 1974 slaying of his wife, Barbara. He and an accomplice beat her with a crescent wrench and choked her at their Chatham County home before dumping her body in a creek. Prosecutors allege he wanted to collect $20,000 in life insurance money. Alderman has been on death row for 33 years. He had been scheduled for execution last October but a stay was issued to allow the U.S. Supreme Court to sort out constitutional questions surrounding lethal injection. Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA -- The state Board of Pardons and Parole today denied clemency for condemned Chatham County murderer Jack Edward Alderman, after hearing from ministers and a school teacher who pleaded for the board to stop his execution tonight. Board members do not comment on their decisions, which are treated as state secrets. James Ringer, Alderman’s attorney, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Now, four U.S. Supreme Court justices may be all that stands between Alderman and the executioner’s needle. Alderman’s attorneys have asked the nation’s highest court to review the case, but the court does not return to session until Sept. 29. If four justices agree to review the case, the court would likely stay the execution until the full court can take it up. At a clemency hearing this morning, several ministers and a schoolteacher who met Alderman through death row ministry and outreach programs asked the board to spare his life -- if not for innocence then for the fact that he’s...

Monday, September 15, 2008 The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency for convicted killer Jack Alderman, clearing the way for his execution. Unless the courts intervene, Alderman will executed at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The 57-year-old is the longest-serving prisoner on Georgia's death row. On Monday, a Fulton County judge said Alderman's execution could not proceed until the five-member pardon board listened to supporters who want to spare his life. His legal team has also filed a request for a stay of execution with the Georgia Supreme Court. Alderman was sentenced to die in the 1974 slaying of his wife, Barbara, in Chatham County. Alderman and an accomplice beather with a wrench and choked her in order to get $20,000 in life insurance money. Source: AP

Monday, September 15, 2008 A Fulton County judge on Monday morning granted a stay of execution to condemned killer Jack Alderman, saying his death sentence is not to be carried out until he has a "meaningful" appointment with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. "If the state's going to impose the extreme penalty of death … due process of the law is never more important," Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland said at the close of a 30-minute hearing. Alderman was scheduled to be executed Tuesday at 7 p.m. for choking and bludgeoning his wife to death in Chatham County in 1974. He had sought an appointment to present his case before the parole board. But last week, the board denied him a hearing, saying it had enough information on the case. Westmoreland said the execution should not be carried out until the board grants an in-person appeal for clemency by Alderman's legal team, with any witnesses that wish to give testimony. The board routinely hears a...

British lawyers fight to halt 'obscene' US execution of Jack Alderman: "Innocent' man has been on death row since 1975 British lawyers will make an 11th-hour attempt to save America's longest-serving death-row prisoner from execution this week. The Law Society, the Bar Council and the charity Reprieve are calling on David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to use diplomatic channels to stay the execution of Jack Alderman and end what they call the "gross injustice of 34 years." They have also sent letters to the governor and attorney-general of Georgia and its Board of Pardons and Paroles. Alderman, 57, who is represented free of charge by the London law firm Clifford Chance, has been on death row in Georgia since 1975 and has always maintained his innocence. He was convicted for his part in the killing of his wife, Barbara Jean Alderman, and faces death by lethal injection on Tuesday. Tim Dutton, QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said: "I am concerned ...

Please see below for an urgent update from Troy Davis' sister, Martina Correia, urging Troy's supporters to continue to spread the word about this case by contacting the Board of Pardons & Paroles, the US Attorney General and the White House, all of whom have the power to stop the execution -- SEE BELOW FOR CONTACT DETAILS. To all, this message is from Martina Correia, I want everyone to know that we are still fighting for Troy, you have not heard from me in two days because I have been trying to answer so many calls and get rest in between. I went to see Troy yesterday and he is in good spirits, prayerful and saying we can never give up they can take my physical form but nothing else. But this is not the time to think he will be executed we have to fight them and we have to fight hard. I want to first tell you that something strange has taken place with the Parole Board, as we went in the Chair Gale Buckner said they had a lot of information to review and a dec...

Friday, September 05, 2008 The state Board of Pardons and Paroles agreed Friday to hear from advocates for convicted cop killer Troy Anthony Davis, who is set to die by lethal injection on Sept. 23. Davis sits on death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot. The board will hear from both sides in the Davis case on Sept. 12. On the same day the board accepted Davis’ request, it said it would not hear from advocates for condemned killer Jack Alderman. Alderman is scheduled for execution on Sept. 16 for the 1974 killing of his wife, Barbara Jean Alderman, in Chatham County. The board held a lengthy hearing on the Davis case last summer. Board members said they want to know more about witnesses who have recanted the testimony they gave at trial about the 1989 murder of the off-duty policeman. Davis’ claims to innocence became known worldwide, and even garnered a request from Pope Benedict XVI that Davis be given a life ...

A Georgia judge signed a death warrant Tuesday allowing the state to execute the man who has spent the longest on death row in the United States. The order signed by Judge Michael Karpf of the Eastern Judicial Circuit allows Jack Alderman to be put to death by lethal injection between noon on Sept. 16 and noon Sept. 23, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Alderman was sentenced to death for drowning his wife in 1974 with the help of another man in order to collect $10,000 in life insurance. Since then, Alderman won an appeal for a re-sentencing and again received a death sentence and lost other appeals. In May, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment, the Georgia high court lifted its stay on Alderman's execution. Karpf replaced the judge in Alderman's original trial, who has died along with the prosecutor and defense attorney. John Arthur Brown, who helped kill Barbara Alderman, also was sentenced to die but later was...