Georgia's First Execution of 2017 Set For Tuesday

JACKSON, GA — An inmate convicted in the 1992 murder of a north Georgia doctor is scheduled to to be executed Tuesday evening.

J.W. Ledford, Jr., is set to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. He would become the first inmate executed in Georgia this year and 70th since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Ledford, 45, arrives at his execution day after an unusual legal appeal. Ledford's attorneys had petition the courts to let him be killed by firing squad, arguing that the lethal drug cocktail used in Georgia for executions is inhumane.

Lawyers argued that because Ledford has been taking a drug to treat nerve pain for years, the pentobarbital intended to act as a sedative may not work as intended. State experts testified that the amount of the drug used is more than sufficient to cause death without pain and a federal appeals court denied Ledford a stay of execution.

According to court records, Ledford, who was then 20, had been drinking and using drugs when he murdered his neighbor, 73-year-old Dr. Harry Johnson in Murray County.

Ledford stabbed Johnson to death shortly after the elder man had given him a ride in his pickup truck. Ledford also tied up Johnson's wife, Antoinette, and stole firearms from the family's home, saying he needed money for drugs.

He sold a rifle and shotgun at two different pawn shops and was arrested shortly thereafter.

On Monday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Ledford's request for clemency in the case. kidnapping. The United States Supreme Court denied Ledford’s request to appeal last month.

Ledford's execution would be the first in Georgia since William Sallie was executed in December. Georgia executed nine death row inmates in 2016, nearly doubling its record for executions. Five inmates had been executed in 2015.

There have been 68 men and one woman executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. If executed, Ledford will be the 47th inmate put to death by lethal injection. There are presently 57 men under death sentence in Georgia.

For his last meal, Ledford didn't skimp. He requested Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon with Pepper Jack cheese, large french fries, 10 chicken tenders with sauce, a fried pork chop, a "bloomin' onion," pecan pie with vanilla ice cream, sherbet and Sprite.

Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections