Justices spurn Jones County killer’s appeal, despite juror’s racial slurs

The Supreme Court is rejecting a new appeal from a Georgia death row inmate convicted in a Middle Georgia slaying, despite evidence that a juror in his capital case used racial slurs.

The high court had previously blocked the execution of Georgia inmate Keith Leroy Tharpe. But the justices on Monday refused to take up his case after a lower court ruled against him.

The 59-year-old Tharpe is trying to get his death sentence thrown out because of comments the juror made to defense investigators several years after Tharpe’s trial. The juror signed an affidavit, though he later testified that he voted for Tharpe’s death sentence because of the evidence against him. The juror has since died.

Lower courts have ruled Tharpe can’t use the juror’s statement.

Tharpe was convicted of killing his sister-in-law Jacqueline Freeman in Jones County on Sept. 25, 1990.

According to evidence, in August 1990, Tharpe’s wife took their children and left him. Tharpe was desperate to win his family back, but his wife’s relatives were protective of her and wanted him to stay away.

On the night before Freeman’s murder, Tharpe drank and smoked crack until the early morning hours.

Then, he drove toward the Freeman family’s home where several family members had homes and his wife was staying.

He encountered his wife and Freeman on the road leading to the family’s property, stopped them and told his wife to get into his truck. Tharpe and Freeman argued. Then Tharpe shot Freeman with a shotgun, reloaded and shot her again.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.