Oldest death row inmate in Georgia executed

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia has executed a 72-year-old man, its oldest death row inmate, for the killing of a convenience store manager during a robbery decades ago.

The state Department of Corrections says Brandon Astor Jones was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday after a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the shooting death of suburban Atlanta store manager Roger Tackett.

A federal judge granted Jones a new sentencing hearing in 1989 because jurors were improperly allowed to bring a Bible into their deliberation room. He was resentenced to death in 1997.

Another man was also convicted and received a death sentence in the case: Van Roosevelt Solomon was executed in 1985.

Evidence at trial indicated a nearby police officer heard four shots in the store, drew his weapon and found Jones and Solomon inside.