Jack Alderman was the longest serving prisoner on Death Row in the USA. For nearly 34 years Jack Alderman sought justice. His final appeal was denied in November 2006. He was only hours from execution on October 18th 2007 when he received a temporary stay while the US Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injection. However it was sanctioned on April 16th 2008, despite overwhelming evidence that it may cause excruciating pain. London artist, Simone Sandelson fought to a last minute for a reprieve for the man who has inspired her paintings. Jack Alderman was executed by lethal injection at 7:15 pm est on |
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Jack Alderman presented a compelling case for innocence. As the State itself has admitted, Jack Alderman's conviction at trial and death sentence were based on the testimony of John Brown, who claimed that he and Jack Alderman killed Barbara Alderman¹. Uncontroverted evidence shows that Jack Alderman was and a kind, considerate man who had never hurt anyone. At the time of trial, Jack Alderman had no criminal history, and many witnesses testified to his reputation for honesty and peacefulness in the community. Since that time, the people who knew him in prison, including fellow inmates, prison guards, attorneys and priests, uniformly described Jack as a peaceful man, a model prisoner, and a role model for others. Jack Alderman's conviction and execution rested almost exclusively on the testimony of John Brown - a violent, abusive, and mentally ill man who admitted to killing Barbara Alderman, and who was granted leniency for his testimony against Jack Alderman. Alderman was executed without a retrial,and without the opportunity for a jury to hear about Brown's undisclosed deal, accounts of Brown's brutally violent behaviour, the testimony of a crucial alibi witness, who was never called to the witness stand and new scientific evidence strongly suggesting that Brown alone killed Barbara Alderman. Read full text of 'A Case for Innocence' |
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The question is: Why was Jack Alderman sentenced to death on the evidence of an accused murderer?Surely the law would recognize that the risk of a guilty person trying to save their own skin through malicious allegation is simply too great. |
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Archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton Montgomery, visiting Jack Alderman in the Georgia Diagnostic Corrections Prison with two priests. |
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¹1 December 4th 1978 retrial before Judge Cheetham; for the State Andrew J Ryan 111, District Attorney; for the defendant (John Brown), Alex Zipperer; for the Blase family, John Ranitz. |
