Georgia has set an execution date of January 16th for Jimmy Meders, who was convicted in the 1987 murder of Don Anderson. More information about this case can be found here.

This will be the sixth execution in Georgia in the last 2 years. Georgia is 1 of 8 states that still actively use the death penalty while the majority of states are abandoning this practice. Issues of concern include:

• Meders was tried before the option of life in prison without parole was available
• Request to test the murder weapon for DNA to help prove whether Meders ever handled the gun has been denied
• Six of eight surviving jurors from the 1989 trial have signed an affidavit stating they do not believe Meders should receive a death sentence
• Not a single defendant in Georgia has been sentenced to death for a similar offense in more than a decade. Meders’ death sentence “is disproportionate according to the contemporary standards of decency of the people of Georgia."

Please sign the petition asking Governor Brian Kemp and the GA Board of Pardons to do anything in their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay and seeking a path to clemency in this case.