Jack Alderman executed after 33 years on the day his final application for clemency is turned down.
By Joshua Rozenberg
Last Updated: 10:00AM BST 17 Sep 2008
Jack Alderman, 57, a convicted murderer who spent more than 33 years on death row, was put to death in Georgia shortly after 1.00 am British time on Wednesday.
The Associated Press news agency reported that he remained calm during the 14-minute lethal injection process, having declined a sedative. He had barely touched the normal prison meal offered to him three hours earlier, a prison spokesman said.
Alderman had no last words but accepted a prayer from a priest in the death chamber. He was pronounced dead at 7.25 pm local time at the state prison in Jackson.
Earlier, he had made a recorded statement "thanking everyone who had made his life better considering the circumstances", the spokesman added.
About 20 opponents of the death penalty gathered quietly outside the prison but the execution attracted little other interest.
On Monday, Alderman's lawyers were allowed by a judge to make a second application for clemency. But this was rejected on Tuesday by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.
"He has been the model prisoner for 34 years," said his lawyer, Michael Seiml. "If that's not enough to get clemency, it's hard to imagine what is."
Also on Tuesday, Georgia's Supreme Court refused to grant Alderman a stay of execution. He had spent longer on death row than any of the 109 prisoners awaiting execution in Georgia.
The global law firm Clifford Chance was acting for Alderman on a pro bono basis. Jeremy Sandelson, the firm's London mamaging partner, said today: "We have battled for over a year to overturn Alderman's original sentence. The execution of a man after 33 years on death row will strike many people, both for or against the death penalty, as unjust, futile and a travesty of justice."
Last week, leaders of the legal profession in England and Wales called on the Foreign Secretary David Miliband to try to stop the the sentence being carried out.
The Law Society, the Bar Council and the campaign group Reprieve say that no-one should be forced to live in such circumstances for so long. “That Mr Alderman has been forced to do so is a form of torture,” they said in a joint statement.
In June 1975, Alderman, then aged 24, was convicted of the murder of his wife, Barbara. The prosecution case was that, in order to claim on his wife’s insurance policy, Alderman had arranged for an accomplice, John Arthur Brown, to come to their home and hit Barbara over the head with a wrench.
Prosecutors said Alderman then placed his hands over his wife’s nose and mouth until she was unconscious. The men drove Barbara in the family car to a creek and left it there, with Barbara’s body in the driver’s seat.
When the police interviewed Alderman early the next morning, his wife’s blood was on his clothes. His defence was that, when he came home, his wife was not there and he assumed she was at a relative’s house. He was driving there when he saw her car in the creek, found her body, cradled her head and then fled in shock.
Brown gave evidence incriminating himself and Alderman. As a result, Brown was released after serving 12 years in prison. He later shot himself.
Reprieve, the Bar Council and the Law Society say they have grave concerns about the strength of the evidence against Alderman. He has been represented on a pro bono basis by the global law firm Clifford Chance, Richard Lissack QC and number of other barristers.
In a recent application to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, it was argued that Alderman, a deeply devout Christian, has been a model prisoner throughout the 34 years of his incarceration. But he was denied clemency.
Tim Dutton QC, Chairman of the Bar Council, said: “I am concerned that the execution of Mr Alderman may be a grave miscarriage of justice." Carrying out the death sentence in these circumstances raised serious questions about his human rights, Mr Dutton continued.
“Governor Perdue and the people of Georgia will know that the eyes of the world are on them at this time. That Mr Alderman faces his unjust fate with dignity and honour is a testament to his courage, and his faith.”
Paul Marsh, President of the Law Society, said: “On behalf of the legal profession, I want to ensure proper observance of the rule of law and human rights in all jurisdictions throughout the world. The Law Society is deeply concerned to learn that the State of Georgia is pushing ahead with Mr Alderman’s execution.
“To execute him now after 34 years, living with the ever present and mounting anguish of awaiting the death penalty, would amount to cruel and inhuman punishment. We urge the Pardons and Paroles Board and the authorities in Georgia to grant Mr Alderman clemency and commutation of his death sentence.”
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s Director, said: “I first met Jack in 1981, and 27 years later the state of Georgia still wants to execute him, even though he is completely innocent. He is an old man now. This whole situation is just obscene.”
First published September 12, 2008. Updated September 17, 2008.
