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 sentence with no parole, as opposed to a death sentence.
Alderman’s lawyer expressed frustration over the board’s decision not to give the case another look. Alderman has been incarcerated for more than 34 years and has been a model inmate, serving as a peacemaker and mentor to the other inmates on death row, said his lawyer, Michael Siem.
“Despite this, the board has denied Mr. Alderman a meaningful opportunity to present his compelling case for clemency,” Siem said. “The people of Georgia deserve better than this.”
In a letter to Alderman’s lawyers, Tracy Masters, the board’s director of legal services, said the board already has reviewed the case. The board already had denied clemency to Alderman last October before his execution was put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injection.
In June, after the high court upheld lethal injections procedures in Kentucky, Alderman’s lawyers asked the parole board for a clemency hearing.
Since then, the board reviewed filings submitted by Alderman’s lawyers and sent staff to interview Alderman on June 26.
Board members recently met to decide Alderman’s case and “concluded that there was insufficient grounds to grant another hearing for those advocating for Mr. Alderman,” Masters wrote. “The board plans no further action relative to Mr. Alderman.”
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week denied Alderman’s challenge to Georgia’s lethal-injection procedures.
Alderman killed his wife for insurance money and got a friend, John Arthur Brown, to help him commit the murder. The two men bludgeoned and choked Barbara Jean Alderman before she was put underwater in a bathtub to make sure she was dead.
Brown was initially sentenced to death for his role in the killing, but his sentence was overturned. Later, after testifying against Alderman, Brown was sentenced to life in prison and eventually released on parole. Brown died in 2000.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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 sentence with no parole, as opposed to a death sentence.
Alderman’s lawyer expressed frustration over the board’s decision not to give the case another look. Alderman has been incarcerated for more than 34 years and has been a model inmate, serving as a peacemaker and mentor to the other inmates on death row, said his lawyer, Michael Siem.
“Despite this, the board has denied Mr. Alderman a meaningful opportunity to present his compelling case for clemency,” Siem said. “The people of Georgia deserve better than this.”
In a letter to Alderman’s lawyers, Tracy Masters, the board’s director of legal services, said the board already has reviewed the case. The board already had denied clemency to Alderman last October before his execution was put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injection.
In June, after the high court upheld lethal injections procedures in Kentucky, Alderman’s lawyers asked the parole board for a clemency hearing.
Since then, the board reviewed filings submitted by Alderman’s lawyers and sent staff to interview Alderman on June 26.
Board members recently met to decide Alderman’s case and “concluded that there was insufficient grounds to grant another hearing for those advocating for Mr. Alderman,” Masters wrote. “The board plans no further action relative to Mr. Alderman.”
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week denied Alderman’s challenge to Georgia’s lethal-injection procedures.
Alderman killed his wife for insurance money and got a friend, John Arthur Brown, to help him commit the murder. The two men bludgeoned and choked Barbara Jean Alderman before she was put underwater in a bathtub to make sure she was dead.
Brown was initially sentenced to death for his role in the killing, but his sentence was overturned. Later, after testifying against Alderman, Brown was sentenced to life in prison and eventually released on parole. Brown died in 2000.
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No comments:
Post a Comment