Brandon Astor Jones

Brandon Astor Jones (February 13, 1943 – February 3, 2016) was an American murderer who was executed by lethal injection by the state of Georgia on February 3, 2016. Jones, age 72, was the oldest person on Georgia's death row at the time he was executed. During his time on death row, he became a published writer of essays and articles, as well as completing two book-length manuscripts of historical fiction and autobiography.

Crime and sentence Jones was first condemned to death on October 17, 1979, for his involvement in the felony murder of Roger Tackett on June 17 of that year during a robbery of a Tenneco convenience store, of which Tackett was the manager. Jones was convicted in relation to this murder along with Van Roosevelt Solomon (December 1, 1943 – February 20, 1985), who was executed in 1985 by electrocution at age 41. He was re-sentenced to death in 1997. Jones was executed early on February 3, 2016, by lethal IV injection, ten days before his 73rd birthday. The executioner team struggled for 45 minutes to insert the IV into Jones' veins, spending 24 minutes trying to get it into a vein in his left arm, another eight minutes trying his right arm and then they asked a doctor in attendance to insert it into Jones' groin which took 13 minutes. Jones was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m.