Walton Superior Court Orders Execution of Brian Keith Terrell

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The execution date has been set for condemned killer Brian Keith Terrell, convicted for the 1992 murder of a 70-year-old Covington man.

The execution is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 10 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, the state Attorney General’s Office said in a news release.

The Superior Court of Walton County filed the order Friday, setting the seven-day window for the execution to begin at noon March 10 and end at noon March 17, according to the release.

RELATED

• The case against Brian Keith Terrell (Ga. Attorney General’s Office)

Terrell was convicted in 2001 for the robbery and murder of John Henry Watson in Watson’s Newton County home. Watson was reportedly a close friend of Terrell’s mother.

According to facts presented in the case, Terrell waited for Watson to come outside to go to a dialysis appointment on June 22, 1992 and opened fire on the man. Watson was shot four times and then beaten so badly that bone penetrated Watson’s brain, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, two days before the attack, Watson told Terrell’s mother that several checks were stolen from him, and Terrell’s name had been signed on some of them. But Watson said he wouldn’t press charges if Terrell returned a significant portion of the money by June 22.

Prosecutors said Terrell was driven to and then picked up from Watson’s house by a cousin, Jermaine Johnson. The two went shopping for clothes after the attack, the attorney general’s office said.

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Terrell was indicted in Newton on charges of malice murder and first-degree forgery. His first trial ended in a mistrial. The second resulted in a death sentence, which was later overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court due to an error in jury selection.

The third trial was held in Walton County on a change-of-venue order. On Feb. 6, 2001, a Walton County jury convicted Terrell and recommended the death penalty.

If executed, Terrell will be the 36th man put to death in Georgia by lethal injection, the Georgia Department of Corrections said.

(Photo: Brian Keith Terrell. Ga. Dept. of Corrections mugshot)