Steven Frederick Spears

Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to weigh clemency for Steven Frederick Spears

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles will meet tomorrow to weigh clemency for a 54-year-old man set to be executed this week.

Steven Frederick Spears faces a Wednesday execution for the October 2001 murder of Sherri Holland in Lumpkin County. A jury on March 21, 2007, convicted Spears of murder and subsequently sentenced him to death.

“Last thing she said was she loved me. Swear to God, that’s the last thing she said. Last words came out of her mouth,” Spears later said, according to court records. When asked what his reply had been, he stated: “I love you, too. Then I choked her ass right out.”

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Spears’s convictions and death sentence on Feb. 16, 2015.

Spears is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. For his last meal, Spears requested a last meal of a large meat pizza.

If executed, Spears will be the eighth person put to death this year in Georgia. Media witnesses for the execution are Elizabeth Hagan of WABE-TV, Matt Aiken of The Dahlonega Nugget, Nick Watson of The Gainesville Times and Kate Brumback of The Associated Press.