Aaron Jones was executed by the State of Alabama for two murders
According to court documents Aaron Jones and Arthur Giles would force their way into a home where they would murder Willene and Carl Nelson. The pair would also stab three children in the home who thankfully survived
Aaron Jones and Arthur Giles would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Aaron Jones was executed by lethal injection on May 3 2007
Arthur Giles would spend over forty years on death row before dying of pneumonia
Aaron Jones Photos
Aaron Jones FAQ
When Was Aaron Jones Executed
Aaron Jones was executed on May 3 2007
When Did Arthur Giles Die
Arthur Giles died September 30 2020
Aaron Jones Case
Aaron Jones was put to death Thursday by lethal injection for the 1978 double murder of a couple on their farm near Oneonta.
The 55-year-old Jones, who was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m., had been the third-longest-serving inmate on Alabama’s Death Row. His accomplice in the murders, Arthur Lee Giles, remains on Death Row at Holman Correctional Facility.
Jones had no final words and fixed his eyes on the ceiling of the execution chamber as a lethal cocktail of chemicals was delivered through an IV tube into his left arm just after 6 p.m. Prison Chaplain Chris Summers kneeled to pray, and placed his hand on the inmate’s left hand.
In the witness room separated by a glass window, the four adult children of the slain victims watched silently. “I feel like they ought to have got the electric chair,” said Larry Nelson, one of the children. “If we had a guillotine or gallows we would have a lot less crying. I hope and pray things will get better.”
For his last meal Jones requested black-eyed peas, pepper steak and an orange-flavored drink. Earlier in the day he had a cheeseburger and a Pepsi from a prison vending machine.
In the hours before his execution he was visited by his two sisters, Glenn Johnson and Phyllis Favors, and his brother, Henry Irby. Irby and a representative of Kairos Prison Ministries witnessed the execution. Jones left all of his belongings, including a Magnavox television, Timex watch, Sony radio and headphones, tobacco, a Bible and a check for $130.85, to another brother, Johnny Wright.
Jones and Giles were convicted for the Nov. 10, 1978, attack in which Willene and Carl Nelson were shot and stabbed to death in the pre-dawn hours. Three children, ages 10, 13 and 21, were critically wounded, but survived. The children’s 85-year-old grandmother also survived.
In testimony at Jones’ trial, the survivors said Giles had worked for Carl Nelson picking vegetables and hauling watermelons to a farmers market. Jones and Giles had been drinking beer and rum the night of the murders, and entered the Nelsons’ home intending to rob them, according to testimony.
The oldest of the couple’s children, Tony, who was 21 at the time, testified that he was awakened just after 3 a.m. when Giles turned on the light in the bedroom Tony shared with his 10-year-old brother, Charlie. Carl Nelson confronted Giles and told him to leave, but minutes later Tony Nelson found Giles at the house’s back door, and Giles shot him twice. Jones and Giles then made their way through the house, shooting and stabbing its occupants, Tony Nelson testified.
After a wounded Tony got to his feet and made his way to his parents’ bedroom, he found Charlie and 13-year-old Brenda, stabbed, shot and bloody, but alive at the foot of their parents’ bed. “My momma and daddy’s dead,” Brenda said, according to Tony Nelson’s testimony.
Jones and Giles were tried separately, with Jones’ trial held in the spring and summer of 1979.
27 years on Death Row:
While the jury took just an hour and 45 minutes to declare him guilty, Jones has been on Death Row for 27 years.
Jones’ attorney had tried unsuccessfully to block the execution, most recently arguing before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that lethal injection poses too high a risk of extreme pain.
Alabama Attorney General Troy King asked the court not to block the execution, arguing that Jones was too late to challenge the use of lethal injection. He could have made that argument years ago without requesting a stay, King said
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2007/05/aaron_jones_executed_for_doubl.html
