**On April 15, 2024, the Court revised Rule 41 (2) to require that the proposed certiorari question or questions be set out under a separate heading at the beginning of the petition. Find the revised rules and more information [HERE](https://www.gasupreme.us/rules/)**

9/26/17 – THARPE DENIED STAY OF EXECUTION

Atlanta, Sept. 26, 2017 – In a 6-to-3 vote, the Supreme Court of Georgia has denied a stay of execution for Keith Leroy Tharpe, who is scheduled to be put to death tonight at 7:00 p.m. by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA.

Tharpe, 59, was sentenced to death in 1991 in Jones County for the September 1990 murder of his sister-in-law, Jaqueline Freeman.

In addition to denying Tharpe’s motion for a stay of execution, the state Supreme Court has denied his request to appeal a ruling by the Butts County Superior Court, which earlier today filed an order denying a stay and dismissing Tharpe’s challenge to his death sentence.

In today’s decision, all the Justices concurred except Presiding Justice Harold Melton, Justice Robert Benham and Justice Carol Hunstein, who dissented. (Judge Charles J. Bethel of the Georgia Court of Appeals sat by designation in place of Justice David Nahmias, who did not participate.)

SC Admin2017-09-27T09:57:22-04:00