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Thread: J.W. Ledford, Jr. - Georgia Execution - May 17, 2017

  1. #21
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Shep3's Avatar
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    G-d we can only hope not. I'm sorry I'm Jewish but I cannot stand the sorry excuses my tribe has produced for the court currently. Hopefully David stras (MN SSC) get the next seat that's open to vindicate my people.

  2. #22
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Georgia schedules its first execution of the year

    By Rhonda Cook
    The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

    A Murray County judge on Wednesday signed a warrant setting a May execution of J.W. Ledford for the 1992 murder of his elderly neighbor.

    If Ledford, 45, is put to death, he will be Georgia’s first lethal injection in 2017, coming off a record year during which the state executed nine men in 11 months.

    According to the warrant, Ledford’s execution is to be scheduled for between noon May 16 and noon on May 23. Usually, the Department of Corrections schedules executions for 7 p.m. on the first day of the window, which will be May 16. It will be carried out at the death chamber at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson, about 50 miles south of Atlanta.

    William Sallie was the last person Georgia put to death. He was executed Dec. 6 for a 1990 murder.

    Ledford was 20 years old, but had been drinking and using drugs half his life when he murdered his “rather feeble” 73-year-old neighbor, Dr. Harry Johnston on Jan. 31, 1992.

    According to testimony at the death penalty trial in Murray County, Ga., Antoinette Johnston had just seen her husband drive away in his pickup with someone in the passenger seat when Ledford knocked on the door and asked to speak with the physician.

    Ledford left when she told him her husband wasn’t home, but he returned 15 to 20 minutes later, introducing himself and asking again to see Johnston. Ledford left only to return a third time about 10 minutes later to ask Antoinette to tell her husband to come to his house that evening.

    The fourth time Ledford came to the Johnston house he had a knife; one that belonged to the elderly man. Ledford told Antoinette Johnston he need money for drugs, and if he didn’t get it he would kill her. Ledford tied up the woman and left the house with two handguns, a rifle and a shotgun that belonged to the family.

    Antoinette Johnston freed herself in time to see Ledford drive off in her husband’s truck.

    Within the next 30 minutes, Ledford sold the rifle and shotgun at two different pawnshops, stopped to buy cigarettes and was stopped on Highway 441 and arrested.

    Ledford confessed.

    He told investigators Johnston was giving him a ride to the grocery store when the older man accused him of stealing and turned around the truck and headed back to his house.

    On the side of the Johnston garage, Ledford said, Johnston knocked him to the ground and then pulled a knife from a sheath in his belt. Ledford said he pulled his own knife and repeatedly stabbed Johnson.

    Ledford dragged the body a short distance away and covered it with tree limbs.

    http://www.ajc.com/news/local/georgi...tjzjazqLqHUIN/

  3. #23
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Shep3's Avatar
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    Glad to see my home state is starting to get a good system going. It's also refreshing to see them focus on cases outside the Atlanta and savannah areas, don't get me wrong a thug is a thug but for to long these cases out of rural counties had been ignored and left to go on for way to long.

  4. #24
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Does anyone know what the initials J.W. stand for? I've checked murderpedia, the Georgia Department of Corrections, Court opinions and all of them refer to him as J.W. They have to stand for something.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #25
    Senior Member Frequent Poster schmutz's Avatar
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    Even the family uses "J.W Ledford III" (of Jackson, GA)...but both John and William come up a lot poking around at other relations in that area.

  6. #26
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Alfred's Avatar
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    It's remarkable the way he changed in these years.. He's almost unrecognizable...

  7. #27
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Shep3's Avatar
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    Jail and 20 years can do that to you. Plus ga used to only show the pic taken when they first came in now they update them more frequently.

  8. #28
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
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    You would be unrecognizable if you were facing what he's facing. What he's about to go through is electrifying. He's a butt hole.

  9. #29
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Parole Board to hear J.W. Ledford’s request for clemency

    The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday scheduled appointments on May 15 to hear from advocates for J.W. Ledford who want to stop his pending execution and from those who want to see his sentence carried out.

    As is its tradition, the morning hours are set aside for Ledford’s attorneys, family members and friends to make a pitch for clemency. The prosecutor, and sometimes the lead investigators and the victim’s relatives, will meet with the five-person board in the afternoon.

    Only the courts and the Parole Board have the authority to stop his execution set for May 16. If the 45-year-old Ledford is put to death for the 1992 murder of his elderly neighbor, his will be the first lethal injection Georgia has carried out in 2017, coming of a record year when the state put nine men to death.

    Ledford was 20 years old, but had been drinking and using drugs half his life when he murdered his “rather feeble” 73-year-old neighbor, Dr. Harry Johnston on Jan. 31, 1992.

    According to testimony at the death penalty trial in Murray County, Ga., Antoinette Johnston had just seen her husband drive away in his pickup with someone in the passenger seat when Ledford knocked on the door and asked to speak with the physician.

    Ledford left when she told him her husband wasn’t home, but he returned 15 to 20 minutes later, introducing himself and asking again to see Johnston. Ledford left only to return a third time about 10 minutes later to ask Antoinette to tell her husband to come to his house that evening.

    The fourth time Ledford came to the Johnston house he had a knife; one that belonged to the elderly man. Ledford told Antoinette Johnston he need money for drugs, and if he didn’t get it he would kill her. Ledford tied up the woman and left the house with two handguns, a rifle and a shotgun that belonged to the family.

    Antoinette Johnston freed herself in time to see Ledford drive off in her husband’s truck.

    Within the next 30 minutes, Ledford sold the rifle and shotgun at two different pawnshops, stopped to buy cigarettes and was stopped on Highway 441 and arrested.

    Ledford confessed.

    He told investigators Johnston was giving him a ride to the grocery store when the older man accused him of stealing and turned around the truck and headed back to his house.

    On the side of the Johnston garage, Ledford said, Johnston knocked him to the ground and then pulled a knife from a sheath in his belt. Ledford said he pulled his own knife and repeatedly stabbed Johnson, almost decapitating him.

    Ledford dragged the body a short distance away and covered it with tree limbs.

    http://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-new...ywRf3hcA3zUXP/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #30
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Same old arguments

    Lawyers cite troubled past in plea to spare inmate's life

    Lawyers for a Georgia inmate scheduled for execution next week are asking the state parole board to spare his life, citing a rough childhood, substance abuse from an early age and his intellectual disability.

    J.W. Ledford Jr., 45, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday. He was convicted of murder in the January 1992 stabbing death of his neighbor, 73-year-old Dr. Harry Johnston, near his home in Murray County, in northwest Georgia.

    A clemency application submitted by his lawyers and released Thursday by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles asks the board to take into account details and factors that the courts have been legally or procedurally barred from considering.

    "The citizens of this state have empowered this Board to make decisions not as judges under the law, but as human beings, to serve as the conscience of our community," Ledford's lawyers wrote.

    The parole board plans to hold a meeting Monday to hear arguments for or against granting clemency. The board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence.

    Ledford's lawyers do not deny that he killed Johnston, and they say his troubled background serves not as an excuse but rather to give insight into how, at age 20 and with no history of violence, he came to kill his neighbor.

    Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston, whose office prosecuted Ledford, did not immediately respond to a call Thursday afternoon seeking comment, but he has previously said he plans to attend the hearing and ask the parole board not to grant clemency.

    Ledford told police he had gone to Johnston's home on Jan. 31, 1992, to ask for a ride to the grocery store. After the older man accused him of stealing and smacked him, Ledford pulled out a knife and stabbed Johnston to death, according to court filings. The pathologist who did the autopsy said Johnston suffered "one continuous or two slices to the neck" and bled to death.

    After dragging Johnston's body to another part of the property and covering it up, Ledford went to Johnston's house with a knife and demanded money from Johnston's wife, according to court filings. He took money and four guns from the home, tied up Johnston's wife and left in Johnston's truck. He was arrested later that day.

    Ledford told police he had a number of beers and smoked a couple joints in the hours before the killing.

    Known as "Boy" because he was his parents' first male child after six girls, Ledford's childhood was characterized by whippings and verbal abuse from his father, who was strict when sober and mean when drunk, the clemency application says. Ledford's older sisters and cousins began giving him alcohol when he was 7 or 8 to watch him get drunk and then began giving him drugs around age 10, the application says.

    Ledford is intellectually disabled and that caused him to struggle throughout school and later made even simple jobs requiring minimal skills difficult, his lawyers wrote. State law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibit the execution of the intellectually disabled, which means Ledford is ineligible for execution, his lawyers argue.

    State and federal courts have consistently rejected Ledford's claims of intellectual disability, but his lawyers are urging the parole board members to use the extra discretion they're allowed to consider the totality of his circumstances.

    The clemency application also includes testimonials from friends, family members and pen pals who say he has offered them support and help even from prison. Two prison guards are quoted as saying he never gave them trouble and got along with other inmates and officers.

    Life without the chance of parole was not a sentencing option at the time of Ledford's trial, but five of the jurors from his trial told his lawyers they would have chosen that instead of death had it been available, the application says.

    http://www.capitalgazette.com/sns-bc...511-story.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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