ATLANTA - The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a clemency meeting for January 15, 2020, in the case of Jimmy Fletcher Meders. The meeting is being conducted for the Parole Board Members to receive information for or against clemency for Meders. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m.

Meders is to be executed January 16, 2020, for the 1987 murder of Don Anderson. The Georgia Department of Corrections scheduled the execution to take place at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Meders was indicted in the Superior Court of Glynn County for malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, burglary and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Meders was convicted of armed robbery and malice murder and sentenced to death in April of 1989. The United States Supreme Court denied Meders’ request to appeal on October 15, 2019. 

The Parole Board may grant clemency in a death penalty case, commuting or reducing the sentence to life with parole eligibility or to life without parole eligibility. The Board may also issue a stay of up to 90-days to consider the case further or deny clemency. In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency in a death penalty case.

In addition to information received at the meeting, the Board Members will consider information contained in the case file maintained on Meders. The Board maintains a comprehensive file on each death row inmate. The file contains background information on the condemned inmate including the inmate’s criminal history and the circumstances of the crime(s) committed resulting in the death sentence.

A clemency decision by the Board will be made prior to the scheduled execution.

The meeting will take place at the Parole Board’s central office in the East Tower of the Floyd Veterans Memorial Building located at 2 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, S.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30334. It is anticipated that the meeting will be closed as authorized by O.C.G.A. § 50-14-3 (a)(2). No public comment will be taken at this meeting and no other business will be conducted. Media will be afforded the opportunity to take photographs in the board hearing room prior to the meeting.

Media should arrive by 8:30 a.m. to be cleared by building security on the Plaza Level and proceed to check in with credentials in the Board’s public reception office on the 4th Floor, room 458. Following the meeting, media will be given an opportunity to interview persons appearing before the Board, if they grant interviews.

To view a photo of Jimmy Fletcher Meders, go to www.gdc.georgia.gov, click on Find an Offender, agree to the terms on the disclaimer page and search by the offender’s EF number, 238451.

For more information please contact Steve Hayes, Director of Communications for the State Board of Pardons and Paroles at 404-657-9450 or [email protected] or visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov.

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