Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Parole is scheduled to hear its first condemned clemency case this year on Monday, and the inmate’s application raises common themes of a less-than-pleasant childhood and intellectual disability.
If the board denies clemency to convicted killer J.W. Ledford, Jr., he likely will be executed by lethal injection sometime after 7 p.m., Tuesday. Ledford is scheduled to be the first killer to die in Georgia’s death chamber this year after the state executed nine men in 2016 to lead the nation.
The five-month lull in executions comes after the state executed 11 men and one woman in a span of about 15 months starting in late 2015. Ledford, if executed, will become the 47th inmate to die by lethal injection in the state. He also will be the 70th inmate executed in Georgia since executions resumed in 1983.
Pardons and Parole is the only board in Georgia which is able to grant clemency. The board may commute the sentence to life in prison, grant a 90-day stay or deny clemency at its meeting. Unlike many states, Georgia’s governor may not grant executive clemency.
Ledford is scheduled to die for the 1992 murder of Harry Johnston in Murray County. He also was convicted of burglary, robbery and kidnapping in the crime against his73-year old neighbor. Ledford is to be executed at a state prison near Jackson. His clemency hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday.
The board generally does not conduct other business during clemency meetings, which are closed to the public.
Ledford’s application contains themes that are common to commutation pleas before the board. Through his lawyers, Ledford argues that his age and a difficult childhood are causes for clemency. According to the application, alcohol and drug abuse were common in his home. His lawyers also claim that he is intellectually disabled. They argue in his application that he was unable to perform even the simplest work tasks without direct supervision, but that he has helped others solve personal problems as a prison pen pal.
In another common theme among clemency applicants, Ledford argues that several jurors in his case now support his application for clemency.
Clemency applications are rarely successful in Georgia.
