Georgia executes man for 1992 slaying

ATLANTA — The state of Georgia early this morning executed a 45-year-old man for a 25-year-old murder.

J.W. Ledford Jr., 45, was convicted of malice murder, armed robbery, burglary and kidnapping in the January 1992 slaying of his 73-year-old neighbor, Dr. Harry Buchanan Johnston Jr., in Northwest Georgia.

Ledford was convicted and sentenced to death on Nov. 14, 1992. The Georgia Supreme Court on Feb. 21, 1994, unanimously affirmed Ledford’s convictions and death sentence.

Ledford is the first Georgia inmate executed in 2017 and the 47th inmate in the state put to death by lethal injection.