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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from the oldest inmate on Georgia's death row.
The justices left in place the death sentence for Brandon Astor Jones, 72, who was convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in suburban Atlanta in 1979. A divided Georgia Supreme Court and the federal appeals court in Atlanta previously upheld Jones' death sentence.
Jones was convicted of killing Roger Tackett, the manager of a Tenneco convenience store in Cobb County, during a robbery.
A federal judge later granted Jones a new sentencing trial because jurors had improperly been allowed to bring a Bible into the deliberation room. Jones was resentenced to death during a 1997 trial.
According to evidence at his trial, Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon were arrested at the scene by a Cobb County policeman who was driving a stranded motorist to the convenience store to use a pay phone. The officer drew his weapon and entered the store after hearing four shots inside the building. He encountered Jones and Solomon just inside the door.
Tests showed each man had recently fired a gun or handled a recently fired gun. The cash drawer had been removed and was found wrapped in a plastic bag.
Solomon, who was also convicted and sentenced to death, was executed in Georgia's electric chair in February 1985.
The case is Jones v. GDCP Warden, 13-1312.
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