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.
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