ATLANTA - Following Tuesday’s meeting to receive information for or against clemency for Steven Frederick Spears, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted to deny clemency in the case.

Spears is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tonight, November 16, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

In reaching its decision to deny clemency in the case, in addition to information received during yesterday’s meeting, the Parole Board reviewed all case materials from the Board’s comprehensive parole file maintained on Spears. The file includes the history of the life of the condemned inmate, the inmate’s criminal history and the circumstances of the crime that was committed resulting in the death sentence.

Spears received the death sentence for the October 2001 murder of Sherri Holland which occurred in Lumpkin County. On March 21, 2007, following a jury trial, Spears was convicted of one count of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of kidnapping with bodily injury and two counts of burglary. The jury’s recommendation of a death sentence for malice murder was returned on March 22, 2007. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the convictions and death sentence in the case on February 16, 2015. Spears did not appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency and commute a death sentence.

For more information please contact Steve Hayes at 404-657-9450 or [email protected] or visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov.