ATLANTA (AP) – A Georgia man who killed his sister-in-law 27 years ago is set to be executed Tuesday.
Keith Leroy Tharpe, known to friends and family as Bo, is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson for the September 1990 slaying of Jacquelyn Freeman.
Tharpe stopped his estranged wife and sister-in-law as they drove to work and ordered them out of the car and then fatally shot Freeman.
Tharpe’s lawyers have asked the courts to stop the execution, saying his death sentence is tainted by a juror’s racial bias. Lawyers for the state have argued there’s no evidence race affected jury deliberations.
The 59-year-old Tharpe would be the second inmate executed in Georgia this year. The state executed nine inmates last year.