Clemency denied for Cook
The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday said it has denied clemency to Andrew Cook, who is scheduled to be executed Thursday for killing of two Mercer University students.
Cook was sentenced to death for the Jan. 2, 1995, shooting deaths of Grant Patrick Hendrickson and Michele Lee Cartagena in Monroe County.
It is the second time in two days the parole board denied a condemned killer’s clemency request. On Tuesday, the board rejected pleas to commute Warren Hill’s death sentence, although the state and federal appeals courts later granted Hill a stay of execution.
Cook is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
