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The state of Georgia will put the death its oldest inmate in connection with a murder he committed in 1979. Brandon Astor Jones, 72, killed a convenience store manager in an Atlanta suburb in a botched robbery is set to be executed 7 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 2).

Jones will be put the death via lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in the city of Jackson. According to a report from Reuters, Jackson’s execution will be the fifth this year in the United States and the first of two executions for Georgia this month. Georgia’s execution follows Alabama, Florida and Texas, who all put inmates to death in December.

Jones, who has been appealing his death sentence over the years, was denied a stay by the Georgia Supreme Court today in a last ditch effort.

Reuters writes:

Jones would be the second man executed in the shooting death of Roger Tackett, 35, inside a convenience store in June 1979, according to court testimony.

Jones was arrested inside the store, along with co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon, by a police officer who heard four gunshots, according to a Georgia Supreme Court case synopsis.

Jones later told another officer “there is a man in the back – hurt bad,” court records said. Police found a badly wounded Tackett in a locked storeroom.

Solomon, also convicted of murder, was executed in 1985. Jones has been appealing his death sentence for decades.

Reuters adds that Jones had death sentence overturned by a federal district court in 1989 because of the presnence of a bible in the courtroom, which they ruled could have influenced the jury.

SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO CREDIT: Inform

SEE ALSO: Supreme Court Rules Florida Death Row Inmate’s Sentence Was Unconstitutional

Georgia Set To Execute Its Oldest Inmate For 1979 Kiling  was originally published on newsone.com