Cases and articles

Authorities on Tuesday prepared to execute the state of Georgia's longest-serving death row inmate for the murder of his wife. 

oday, the state board of pardons and paroles denied clemency to Jack Alderman. He's been on death row since being convicted of killing his wife in 1974 in Southeast Georgia.

The denial means the state will put Alderman to death tonight.

Reprieve is delighted at the news that Jack Alderman, who has been on Georgia 's death row for over 33 years, has received a stay of execution.

Today a Judge ordered that Jack's execution - scheduled for tomorrow - should not be carried out until the State Board of Pardons and Paroles grants a "meaningful" hearing at which Jack's legal team and witnesses will have an opportunity to appeal for clemency. "How hard, how difficult would it be before the state takes someone's life, as a matter of grace ... for you to have this hearing?" asked the Judge. A time for the hearing has not yet been scheduled.

There is a distinct possibility with Troy Davis , a 40-year-old man facing execution on 23 September in the US state of Georgia for the murder of a policeman in 1989. Davis has always adamantly denied the killing. To say that there are doubts about the safety of his conviction would be a massive understatement.