Death row inmate J.W. Ledford Jr. is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

Death row inmate J.W. Ledford Jr. is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday, May 16, 2017. / Georgia Department of Corrections

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has declined to commute the death sentence of J.W. Ledford. His execution is scheduled to be carried out Tuesday, May 16. It will be the first one this year. Georgia has long played a central role in the death penalty debate. How Georgia cases have shaped the rules around capital punishment is the subject of a conversation we had with Sarah Turberville of The Constitution Project and Michael Mears of Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. 

Tags: capital punishment  Death Penalty  Atlanta  Georgia