J.W. Ledford Jr.
Lawyers said J.W. Ledford Jr., 45, had a rough childhood and an intellectual disability. According to The Mississippi Link, Georgia executed him by lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson early on a Wednesday morning in November 2024, more than six hours after his scheduled time, while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a stay request. His lawyers argued that his intellectual disability and more than a decade of medication for chronic nerve pain made lethal injection risky, but the courts and the state parole board rejected those claims. Georgia Department of Corrections records list his execution at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson on May 17, 2017.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. His lawyers argued that his intellectual disability, a difficult childhood and long-term medication for chronic nerve pain made the lethal injection risky, and that the execution was prolonged by more than six hours.
Reported by: Georgia Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); his lawyers.