ATLANTA - The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a meeting for Monday, September 25, 2017, to consider clemency for condemned inmate Keith Leroy Tharpe. The sole purpose of this meeting is to receive information for or against clemency for Tharpe. The Board’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the Board’s hearing room.

The Jones County Superior Court has ordered the execution of Tharpe for the September 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman.  The Georgia Department of Corrections has scheduled the execution to take place by lethal injection on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Tharpe was convicted in Jones County of malice murder and two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury and sentenced to death on January 10, 1991, for the murder of Freeman. The Georgia Supreme Court has affirmed Tharpe’s convictions and death sentence and the United States Supreme Court denied Tharpe’s request to appeal on June 26, 2017.

In Georgia, the Parole Board has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency and commute, or reduce a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. Following the meeting, the Board may commute the sentence, issue a stay of up to 90-days, or deny clemency.

The Board maintains a comprehensive file on each death row inmate. The file contains the history of the life of the condemned inmate, including the inmate’s criminal history and the circumstances of the crime that was committed resulting in the death sentence.

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 prior to the meeting. Media should check in with credentials by 8:30 a.m. in the Board’s public reception office at 2 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, S.E., East Tower, 4th Floor, room 458. Media should first be cleared for entry by building security on the Plaza Level. Members of the media will be given an opportunity to interview those appearing before the Board, if they choose to grant interviews.

To view a photo of Keith Leroy Tharpe, 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, 271622.

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

###