Lawyers Ask Georgia Panel To Spare Condemned Man’s Life

Jimmy Fletcher Meders is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday.

Georgia Department of Corrections via AP

Lawyers for a Georgia man set to be executed this week want the state parole board to convert his sentence to life without the possibility of parole, arguing that’s what the jury would have chosen if given the chance.

Jimmy Fletcher Meders, 58, was convicted of murder and sentenced to die for the October 1987 killing of convenience store clerk Don Anderson in coastal Glynn County. He’s scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday.

In a clemency application filed with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, Meders’ lawyers urged board members to spare his life. The board is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a death sentence. It plans to hold a closed-door clemency hearing Wednesday.