Clemency denied for Georgia death row inmate set to die tonight

ATLANTA — The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency for 54-year-old Steven Frederick Spears.

Spears is set to die tonight 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.

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Spears’s convictions and death sentence on Feb. 16, 2015. Spears has declined to initiate an appeal and has not met with his attorneys since March 2015, The Associated Press reported.

For his last meal, Spears requested a last meal of a large meat pizza.