The Latest: Lawyers say death sentence is disproportionate
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Latest on legal challenges filed by a Georgia death row inmate who's scheduled to die this week. All times local:
12:35 p.m.
Lawyers for a Georgia death row inmate set to die this week are asking the state's highest court to throw out his sentence, arguing that it's disproportionate to his crime.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brandon Astor Jones was convicted in the 1979 killing of Cobb County convenience store manager Roger Tackett. Jones is scheduled for execution Tuesday.
Jones' lawyers argued in a court filing Monday that even at the time when he was convicted, a death sentence for a murder during a robbery at a place of business was rare. The lawyers say that it has become even more unusual recently, with no death sentences imposed for a murder during an armed robbery in Georgia in the past 20 years.
The lawyers say that makes Jones' death sentence excessive and, therefore, unconstitutional.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}___
4:20 a.m.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to consider a clemency request from the state's oldest death row inmate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The board plans to hold a hearing on the request from Brandon Astor Jones on Monday. The 72-year-old is scheduled for execution at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Jackson.
The parole board is the only entity in Georgia with the authority to commute a death sentence.
Jones was convicted in the 1979 killing of Cobb County convenience store manager Roger Tackett.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A federal judge granted Jones a new sentencing hearing because jurors had improperly been allowed to bring a Bible into the deliberation room. He was resentenced to death in 1997.
Another man convicted in the killing, Van Roosevelt Solomon, was executed in 1985.