Georgia Set To Execute Second Inmate Of 2017

ATLANTA, GA — A Georgia man convicted of killing his sister-in-law with a shotgun then kidnapping and sexually assaulting his estranged wife has been scheduled for execution on Tuesday.

Keith Leroy Tharpe, 59, would become the second person executed by lethal injection in Georgia this year and the 71st person put to death in the state since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.

That is a slower pace than 2016, when Georgia executed nine condemned inmates.

According to court documents, Tharpe, on Sept. 24, 1990, met up with his estranged wife and sister-in-law in middle Georgia's Jones County, using his vehicle to block them then getting out brandishing a shotgun. Apparently under the influence of drugs, Tharpe, who had repeatedly threatened his wife and her family with violence, shot his sister-in-law — 29-year-old Jacquelin Freeman — with the shotgun, rolled her into a ditch, reloaded and shot her again.

He then kidnapped his wife. After unsuccessfully trying to rent a motel room, he parked by the side of a road and raped her, court documents say. Afterward, he drove her to Macon, where she was supposed to get money from her credit union.

Instead, she called police.

On January 18, 1991, Tharpe was sentenced to death after a Jones County jury found him guilty of malice murder and two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury. (SIGN UP:Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Tharpe is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Lawyers for Tharpe have petitioned the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency in the case.

The petition says Tharpe was addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol when he committed the crimes — addictions he has overcome while in prison.

"Without in any way discounting or minimizing Mrs. Freeman’s death and the pain caused by Mr. Tharpe’s crime, we ask the Board to consider who Mr. Tharpe is today: a man full of remorse, living every day guided by his faith, respect, and good will, who strives to put as much good into the world as he can, which he will continue to do if allowed to live out the remainder of his natural life in prison," the petition reads.

The document notes that at least some of Freeman's family members support clemency in the case and that his conviction and sentence possibly were tainted by racism, citing a jury member who was quoted using a racial slur when referring to Tharpe.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Tharpe has requested a last meal of three spicy chicken breasts, a roast beef sandwich with sauce, a fish sandwich, tater logs, onion rings, an apple pie and a vanilla milkshake.

Tharpe would become the 48th inmate put to death since Georgia switched to lethal injection. There are presently 56 men under death sentence in Georgia.

Death row inmate J.W. "Boy" Ledford was the last prisoner executed in Georgia, on May 17.

Photo via Georgia Department of Corrections