Rhode seeks stay of execution

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A man scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening is asking that his execution be postponed to allow courts time to review his mental health claims.

Brandon Joseph Rhode, 31, is on death row for the 1998 murders of a father and his two children in Jones County. Rhode and his co-defendant, Daniel Lucas, who is also on death row, were burglarizing the home when 11-year-old Bryan Moss came home from school and confronted them. The men killed Bryan and then his 15-year-old sister and 37-year-old father.

In a court filing Monday, Rhode's lawyers said their client suffered from organic brain impairments associated with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder because his mother was 15 and drinking alcohol and taking drugs until she found out she was pregnant well into her second trimester. Rhode should not be executed because his youth and brain damage "rendered him incapable of the requisite level of culpability required to justify execution," the motion said.