State Board Hears Clemency Arguments for Death Row Inmate Andrew Cook

ATLANTA, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The State Board of Pardons and Paroles considered whether to reduce a convicted killer’s death sentence to a lesser punishment Tuesday.

Andrew Allen Cook is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday for the 1995 murders of two Mercer University students, Grant Hendrickson and Michele Cartagena.

The board heard testimony from Cook’s family and friends, who asked for leniency and to reduce the death sentence to life without parole. They are not expected to make a decision today on whether to grant clemency.

Here’s how the clemency decision is made: The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with the power to reduce a death sentence to life without parole. The Board has on file all the circumstances of the crime, the inmate’s criminal history and a comprehensive history of his or her life. After today’s hearing, each Board member will cast a confidential vote to grant or deny clemency…it requires an affirmative vote of 3 of the five board members.

41NBC spoke with friends of the Cook family after the hearing in Atlanta, who didn’t want to comment on today’s proceedings.