Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE US STATE of Georgia is set to execute its oldest death-row prisoner tomorrow, just days before his 73rd birthday, in a case critics say is emblematic of the excesses of capital punishment.
Brandon Jones, scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a state prison in Jackson, has spent more than 36 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of a convenience store clerk.
Critics point to his case as an example of the “double punishment” some death-row prisoners are subjected to – spending decades in solitary confinement with no prospects but death.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer last year spoke out against “unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penalty’s penological purpose”.
Final meal
Georgia prison authorities say Jones will be executed at 7:00pm (12am Irish time on Wednesday).
Jones, who would turn 73 on Valentine’s Day, declined to request a final meal.
“He will be receiving the institutional tray consisting of chicken and rice, rutabagas, seasoned turnip greens, dry white beans, cornbread, bread pudding and fruit punch,” the Department of Corrections said in a statement.
Currently 76 men are on death row in Georgia, which suspended executions for several months in 2015 in response to a controversy over the drugs used in its lethal injections.
Jones will be the fifth person executed in the US this year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
What is the point at this stage?
Because he did the crime and that was the stipulated penalty !!
In this country he would serve 6 years .
Incorrect Dave. Life can mean life here; it’s discretionary but there is no alternative to a life sentence if convicted of murder here.
Catch the Journals recent 3 Part Series on Lifers; currently 31 Prisoners who’re serving 20 years +.
Jimmy Ennis is 87; he’ll die in prison, another guy there 42 years.
John Shaw & Geoffrey Evans? One of them died after a stroke; other one’s in Castlerea & unlikely to see light of day.
Average Life Sentence here is 18-22 but it is discretionary; look at MacArthur; 30 years he did.
There is absolutely no guarantee that once sentenced to life you will ever be released. None.
there were two english freaks, whatever became of them? here we are.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/jailed-garda-killers-have-paid-their-debt-225573.html
I disagree with the death penalty but this man has already served his time. Without making light of a murder, there are a lot worse out there like serial killers, rapists etc that should technically be in his place. The US justice system is so warped, he’s already been in hell for decades.
Been in hell for decades? Yeah if he’d been in solitary confinement for the whole time, which he wasn’t. Its not that bad.
The article states that his case is being used as an example because he was kept in solitary confinement
There’s no defending that but still, human rights should be observed
And what about the human rights of the person he killed?
What about them?
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.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time!
He has done 36 years…the sentence was supposed to be death. Why wait?? That’s a ludicrous stay of execution.
I would guess that he kept finding new grounds to appeal and prolonged the appeal process. Now his time has finally ran out..
He’s damn right to use/abuse/manipulate the system to save his own life; think most of us in his situation would if what you’re saying re appeals is true.
Desperation to preserve his life is totally understandable.
But the Death Penalty is wrong for so many reasons. It’s barbaric.
In Ireland he would of gotten out 30 years ago and would be treated like nothing happened. Although I really think after spending 36 years in solitary confinement he should be released and definetely not killed.
Released? What planet are you living on, he beat, shot and killed an innocent shop worked! Albeit 36 odd years ago, but he should get a life sentence instead of a death sentence. We’re too lenient with sentencing here. Had it been here he would have got 12years or with a few suspended for “good” behavior.
The sentence is apt. he should serve 40 and leave him out.
The average time spent in prison in Ireland on a life sentence is 20 years. Sorry about that, I know you all like to pretend it’s shorter because you love being constantly outraged about everything. Maybe you should try being outraged about something that’s actually true instead of making things up.
To keep someone locked up for 36yrs and then put him to death is pure and simple sadism but then the whole US justice system is warped
They sure as hell know how to deal with white collar crime though.
No they don’t. A few token incarcerations so does not mean they are dealing with white collar criminals…
He has done 864 Months
# 44
Age that should be
I agree with Martin I think what the system did is as barbaric as the murder.
What a sick barbaric country.
The answer to murder is not murder.
Death penalty is wrong.
An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.
You got it in on
Was it Gandhi that once said “An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind”?
But Gandi was wrong! As long as you don’t take someone else’s eye you have nothing to fear and those who do take eyes will find themselves short an eye! It works perfectly! Do onto others as you would have them do to you seems more fitting to me!
He’s not being put to death for no reason. Good riddance
And what about the poor store clerk who lost his/her life? Barely got a mention in this post and wasnt given an opportunity to live his/her life back so many yes ago..as usual lets not focus on the victim and feel sorry for the perpetrators!!!!!
Why was he on death row for 36 years?. It’s usually 10 after all the appeals.
@luke, many have spent more than 20 yrs in death row in America.
Why is there such a difference in conviction to execution date, in so many different cases?. Just curious.
Good Riddance.
Dept. of Corrections?
Cén corrections a rinne siad?
America is such a confused country. Plenty of people over there are pro-life, pro-guns and pro-capital punishment. It don’t make no darned sense
A Dog is shot dead by US cops every 98 minutes,
Are they white dogs or black dogs?
Some States have the death penalty, some don’t. However there should be a time bound limit on the process of appeals.
Black and white Spanish speaking Chinese dogs.
Barbarous and pointless.
For taking another life ,he should spend the rest of his life in prison to die
He is spending the rest of his life in prison.
He is not. They are executing him tomorrow
Will he ever live a day outside prison? No. Therefore he is spending the rest of his life in prison. I suspect you mean they should keep him in and let nature run its course, not execute him.
Yes, Ridiculous, he will be spending the rest of his life in prison.
I for one have mixed feelings about the death penalty in so far as I think it’s a total contradiction in terms that a nation that illegalises killing amongst its citizens can be legally allowed to kill its citizens itself. I could debate that till the cows come home but in any event, I really don’t see the point of execution in this case. He’s served time, he’s not going to be released, why not let nature run its course?
I heard a man say to his wife after 25 years married “if I murdered you that day I’d be free now” which is true, we are so lenient in comparison to the U.S. Life should be life, I’m not so sure on capital punishment though
Two wrongs don’t make a right, a death for a death is illogical in this day and age. I would have liked to have thought humanity had evolved from these customs but no.
And justice for all. ? Seems like a case of bureaucratic murder. Surely he has literally done a life sentence. ?
Murder of the old folks
# Only in America.
Eh! The Store clerk was only 29, hardly ‘Old Folks’???
The cheek of the Department of Corrections to keep appealing the ‘Death’ sentence for 30 odd years just to keep him alive,
Oh sorry that was the ‘Do-Gooders’ Lobby and his well paid lawyers.
He got a choice about his future, the store clerk working for a living didn’t so all the weenies should cop themselves on
Totally savage treatment of a prisoner
In 1979, Jimmy Carter was President.
Pink Floyd released their bestselling album “The Wall.”
Denim overalls were in, Mork and Mindy was on TV, and news about the Iranian hostage crisis dominated every headline.
His co-accused Soloman was executed in 1985.
Brandon Jones writes a blog about life on death row.
https://brandonswriting.wordpress.com/about/
@Oran
Could you point us to the ‘blog’ written by Roger Tackett just for a bit of balance or do victims not count??????
I’m not arguing against the death penalty.
Just sharing some information with the community.
Stay classy Merika!
Yes Classy Merika
Cap him !
Primitive backward barbarians and cruel to the core…What a sick nation of people to allow such disgusting behaviour.
The American prison industry is completely privatized.
Prisons are one of the biggest industries in America.
Locking people up forever makes billions for the American prison corporations.
“Three strikes and you are out” was concocted by the American prison industry.
(Eternal prison,without possibility of being released, for being naughty 3 times when you were a teenager).
.
A few executions here and there makes no difference to the profits of the vast American Prison Industry.
I’m totally against the death penalty for two reasons, if you execute the wrong person, you can never take it back, and if it was in fact a real deterrent then surely people wouldn’t commit murder. Letting him rot in a cell is the right thing to do in my book.
It’s all well & good letting them rot in a cell, but with more and more prisoners being added to the system, all that will lead to is prison overcrowding. Then to combat that, they have to let some prisoners out earlier than expected. For murderers, rapists & the like, if all the right evidence is there, it should be death, & not death row for 30 years, death immediatly on conviction.
Keith we’re talking about the US. They don’t release prisoners early because of overcrowding, they build more prisons.
Elis, if life meant life over here & overcrowding became an issue. Would they build more and more prisons then? Even in the US, there’ll come a time when they can’t build anymore.
Why is this making Irish news?
36 years is an excessively long sentence. What’s the point, I mean really. Unless he’s some crazed serial killer, I’m sure he’s learned his lesson and holds that guilt very close to his chest.
He’s taken someone else’s life and rightly so he was punished. He should have been released years ago.
He took someone’s life, but he is a human being too and this isn’t a perfect world where everything is equal.
After all those years in prison and solitary confinement it would be cruel to let him out too at this stage! He wouldn’t last p***ing time!
The US for-profit prison system is totally corrupt. Only a couple of years ago in the ‘Kids for Cash’ scandal, a former judge in Pennsylvania, Mark Ciavarella, was sentenced to 28 years for racketeering and receiving kick-backs for incarcerating children as young as ten for such heinous crimes as cursing at a friend’s mother, stealing a jar of nutmeg and sometimes no crime at all.
The US has the highest prison population in the world, this is not likely to change. It’s one of the fastest growing industries in America with massive profits being made by investors on Wall St. The US has 25% of the world’s prison population but only 5% of the world’s people. Many inmates now work for various industries for 25c an hour and if they refuse to work they’re placed in solitary confinement.
Wait till Trump is president. America will make more sense then
have your say