Panel holds clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia death row inmate scheduled to die this week has grown into a quiet man who has a positive effect on others and bears little resemblance to the teenager who helped beat a man to death two decades ago, his lawyers argue.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, held a clemency hearing for Bishop Wednesday.

"The story of Joshua Bishop's life is one of deprivation, abuse, hopelessness, and crime; but it is also one of faith, contrition, redemption, gratitude, and love," Bishop's lawyers wrote in a clemency petition asking the parole board to spare his life.

Bishop had an extremely rough childhood with a mother who constantly drank and used drugs and had a weakness for abusive men who beat her and her two sons, the petition says.

[...] Wednesday, a Butts County Superior Court judge rejected a challenge filed by Bishop's lawyers that claimed his sentence was disproportionate, that the jury instructions at his trial were flawed and that the evidence used to convict him was insufficient.