Georgia's Supreme Court has given no sign whether it will allow a Savannah man to be executed this week without re-examining an apparently flawed ruling by the court to uphold his death sentence.

The court affirmed killer Jack Alderman's death sentence in 1985 by comparing it to punishment in 20 other cases that it deemed similar.

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Jack Alderman of Savannah was convicted of killing his wife, Barbara, for life insurance proceeds.

A matter of life or death Capital punishment in Georgia | Reform ideas vary

But research by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found 17 of those sentences have been overturned — including 10 that already had been overturned at the time of the decision.

Fifteen of those defendants later got life sentences, and one was released and never retried.

The Journal-Constitution reported last month that 80 percent of the court's rulings in death cases since 1982 have relied in part on reversed decisions.

The court's so-called "proportionality review" is meant to guard against disproportionately severe death sentences. The review, required by state law, was a key factor cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 when it reinstated capital punishment in Georgia.

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has said the court is taking steps to improve the process and taking a "very long, hard look" at its use of overturned cases in proportionality reviews. But the court has not corrected any case citations in the flawed sentence reviews.

Alderman, convicted of murdering his wife, Barbara, is scheduled to be executed Friday by lethal injection.

New review urged

Some legal experts say the court should give Alderman another sentence review.

"Because this gentleman has been on death row for so long, one hesitates to suggest additional time," said Ron Carlson, a University of Georgia law professor. "However, it seems to me there should be additional court review. I think it would instill more confidence in the process."

Tim Floyd, a Mercer University law professor, agreed.

"We don't have a fair death penalty without a proper review," said Floyd, a member of an American Bar Association panel that has recommended improvements in the court's proportionality review. "The promise, the legal requirement under the law, is that the court will ensure that we do not have an arbitrary and capricious death penalty."

Alderman's lawyers have not challenged the court's proportionality review. They are seeking to delay his execution until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Russ Willard, a spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said no additional review is necessary. He noted that Alderman had demanded on multiple occasions that a "hit man" kill his wife, that Alderman tackled her as she fled and then suffocated her and drowned her in a bathtub. Alderman later tried to make her death look like an accident, he added.

"Any argument that the sentence of death is constitutionally disproportionate is laughable," Willard said.

The Georgia Supreme Court is not supposed to look at capital cases in isolation. While the court must consider the nature of the crime and killer, it is also supposed to determine whether a death sentence is excessive when compared to similar cases.

Kay Levine, a criminal law professor at Emory University, said that because 16 of the 20 cases cited in Alderman's review resulted in sentences less than death, Alderman should get a new sentence review.

"It would make us all feel better about the integrity of the process," said Levine, a former prosecutor.

'Absolutely valueless'

Stephen Bright, a lawyer who represents death-row inmates, said Alderman's review is too flawed to be reliable.

"The review the Georgia Supreme Court did in the Alderman case is absolutely valueless," Bright said. "It provides no basis for upholding the death sentence in this case, and at the very least, the court must do it again."

Bright also contended that the three valid death sentences cited in Alderman's review came in cases that were not similar to his crime.

One involved a gang leader who, with two accomplices, kidnapped and shot an 11-year-old boy and his stepfather; the boy died. Another involved a man who sexually abused and killed a 15-year-old girl. A third man was condemned for the beating death of a man with whom he had been smoking marijuana and drinking.

Alderman, with the help of a friend, John Arthur Brown, killed his wife for life insurance proceeds, according to testimony. Barbara Alderman was hit over the head with a crescent wrench, choked until she was unconscious and submerged in the tub.

Brown was sentenced to death in 1975, but was resentenced three years later to life in prison after his lawyers sought a new trial. He testified at Alderman's retrial in 1984 and was paroled in 1987 on the condition he not return to Georgia.