The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rare clemency halts inmate’s execution
Board heeds calls by jurors in 1989 trial for life without parole.
Wednesday was to be Jimmy Meders’ last night sleeping on death row, his home for the past 30 years. In less than 24 hours, he was scheduled for transport to the execution chamber — a nondescript 8-by-12 room located on the grounds of the state prison in Jackson.
Earlier in the evening, however, an announcement from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles provided a sliver of hope for the 58-year-old convicted killer. The board, following a full day of testimony, had yet to reach a decision on Meders’ application for clemency.
The delay proved telling. A little before 1 p.m. Thursday, his execution just six hours away, Meders learned the board had commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“The board’s critically important role in showing mercy in these rare circumstances cannot be overstated,” said Michael Admirand, one of Meders’ attorneys. “By taking this action, this parole board has made real the intent of the jury to sentence Jimmy
to life without parole, and not death.”
Since reinstating the death penalty in 1976, Georgia has granted clemency to only 12 inmates while executing 75 men and one woman. It had been six years since the parole board commuted a death sentence.
“We knew we had an uphill battle,” said Sara Totonchi, head of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which provided the legal resources for Meders’ defense. “But we knew we had a strong case.”
They focused not so much on questions about Meders’ guilt — he maintains he didn’t fire the shots that killed Glynn County convenience store clerk Don Anderson in 1987 — but on what the jurors who sentenced him to death truly wanted. Affidavits from all of the surviving jurors reaffirmed that they had, from the beginning, preferred a lesser sentence.
A note sent from jurors to the judge in Meders’ 1989 trial, included in his clemency application, confirmed their unease.
“If the Jury recommends that the accused be sentenced to life imprisonment, can the Jury recommend that the sentence be carried out without Parole?” they asked.
But it would be four years before the state authorized that sentencing option.
In a statement, the board also cited Meders’ lack of a criminal record prior to Anderson’s murder and his good behavior while in prison as reasons they commuted the death sentence.
Meders was surrounded by family members when he was informed of the parole board’s decision. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lori Benoit said Meders will either be assigned to a new housing unit at the Jackson prison or transferred to a different facility “appropriate to his security level.”
Benoit also said Meders would not be served what was to be his final meal: 10 chicken strips, two bacon cheeseburgers, french fries, soda, and a pint of vanilla ice cream.
There are now 49 inmates on death row, none with a scheduled execution date. In 2016, the state executed nine prisoners, but the pace has slowed considerably in the years since, with just six executions.
Georgia prosecutors have secured just one death sentence in the past five years. Tiffany Moss was convicted in April 2019 of intentionally starving her 10-year-old stepdaughter to death in 2013 and disposing of her body.
“The death penalty really seems to be falling into disfavor, nationally and in Georgia,” said Marietta criminal defense attorney Philip Holloway, a former prosecutor. “The public understands there have been wrongful convictions, and the state realizes it’s not the most economical thing to do.”
Holloway said that while prosecutors like the leverage afforded to them by the death penalty, he expects it will eventually fade away.
Totonchi agreed that use of the death penalty is trending down but said that wasn’t an issue in the decision to grant Meders clemency.
“This was a case decided on its own merits,” she said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was unsuccessful in its attempts to contact relatives of Anderson.
A spokesman for the Board of Pardons and Paroles said he could not disclose whether any family members attended the clemency hearing, which was closed to the public.
Anderson was working the overnight shift when he encountered Meders and at least one other man, Greg Creel. Meders testified that another man, Bill Arnold, was there too. Arnold, according to Meders, shot Anderson and instructed Meders to grab cash from the register. Arnold and Creel both testified that Meders shot the clerk and stole the money.
Randy Harris, who had spent the previous afternoon drinking with the three men, testified that Meders told him he had “blowed a man’s head off over $38.”
There are now 49 inmates on death row, none with a scheduled execution date. In 2016, the state executed nine prisoners, but the pace has slowed considerably in the years since, with just six executions.