GRAY, Ga. — A convicted Jones County killer whose execution was halted by the US Supreme Court has died in prison.
Georgia's Department of Corrections says Keith “Bo” Tharpe died Friday of natural causes.
Tharpe was sentenced to death in 1991 for the malice murder of his sister-in-law, Jacquelin Freeman, and the kidnapping of his estranged wife.
According to court documents, Tharpe repeatedly threatened his wife and her family after she left him.
One September morning in 1990, as Freeman and Tharpe's wife were on their way to work, the 59-year-old used his car to force his wife's off the road. Armed with a shotgun, he forced Freeman to the back of the vehicle where he shot her twice.
Jones County investigator Major Earl Humphries said even at trial, Tharpe showed no remorse.
"He had about the coldest eyes I can remember from anyone I've ever spoken to," he said.
But his lawyers argued that the sentence was tainted by a juror who made racist statements during the trial.
In 2017, the Supreme Court halted his execution on the night it was scheduled to happen, and asked Georgia courts to review the matter.
Courts later re-affirmed his death sentence, but the state never re-scheduled the execution.
Tharpe was 61.
COVERAGE OF THE CASE
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