UPDATE: Parole Board Denied Clemency on Sept. 16 and Jack Alderman was executed.

On September 15, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland granted a stay of execution for Jack Alderman in Georgia. Judge Westmoreland stayed the execution, scheduled for Sept. 16, until Alderman receives a “meaningful” meeting with the state’s Board of Pardons. The judge stated: “If the state’s going to impose the extreme penalty of death … due process of the law is never more important.” Alderman was sentenced to death in 1975 for the murder of his wife a year earlier.

The Board of Pardons had denied Alderman’s request for a hearing, saying they had enough information on the case. The judge asked, “How hard, how difficult would it before the state takes someone’s life, as a matter of grace … for you to have this hearing?”

Alderman has been on death row for 33 years, longer than any other man in Georgia. His accomplice, John Brown, served only 12 years for his part in the murder, including hitting the victim with a crescent wrench and helping to drown her. Brown signed an affidavit in 1999 stating that there was an implied deal for sentencing leniency for his testifying against Alderman, but no deal was revealed to Alderman’s attorneys. Five of the jurors who convicted Alderman in a retrial in 1984 have submitted affidavits asking for his life to be spared. Alderman’s attorney, Michael Siem, explains, “It’s a pretty compelling case for clemency. Mr. Alderman is a man of faith and throughout his [nearly] 35 years on death row has been a mentor and a peacemaker. He has earned the opportunity for the board to hear from his supporters.” The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has yet to schedule Alderman’s hearing. Alderman’s lawyers are prepared for a hearing on Sept. 16 if the Board schedules it.

(B. Rankin, “Jack Alderman gets stay of execution,” The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, September 15, 2008; R. Cook, “Death Row Watch: Ex-jurors join plea for mercy,” The Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 15, 2008). See also Arbitrariness and Clemency.