Jury gets case of killer with Internet support

Web posted September 22, 1997

MARIETTA, Ga. - A Cobb County jury Saturday began considering whether to resentence Georgia death row inmate Brandon Astor Jones to life in prison after hearing from witnesses drawn to the case from around the world through Jones' essays on the Internet.

The jury deliberated for three hours before adjourning until Monday.

Jones and another man were convicted of killing Roger Tackett, a 35-year-old teacher moonlighting as a service station attendant, during a 1979 robbery. Jones' accomplice was executed in 1986, but Jones received a new sentencing hearing after it was revealed that the trial judge had allowed a Bible in the jury room.

Jones' essays are posted on the Web site of the Australian alternative magazine Green Left Weekly. None mention the crime, instead the topics range from racism to how prisoners are treated.

They have won support for his death-row appeal from strangers as far away as England and Australia, some of whom traveled to Georgia to testify.

On Saturday, defense lawyer Tony Axam said prosecutor Russ Parker had not proved that Jones fired the fatal shots, so he had convinced the trial jury that Jones was ``pure evil.''

Axam asked the jury to adopt a ``New Testament'' attitude toward punishment that would find ``no nobility in putting Brandon Jones to death.''

In his closing arguments, Parker replied: ``Mr. Axam said there is no nobility in executing Brandon Jones. I say there is no nobility in malice murder.

``I say let the punishment fit the crime,'' Parker said.