An American convicted of murder was pardoned hours before his execution.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Jan. 16 pardoned Jimmy Fletcher Meders, who was convicted of murder.

The website of the board of pardons reported that Meders' death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the right to parole.

According to UPI, Meders was pardoned a few hours before his execution, which was scheduled for the evening of January 16th.

Meders was convicted in 1989 of the murder of convenience store employee Don Anderson during a robbery in 1987. The Board of Pardons decided to commute the sentence to a more lenient one, as the jury in the case was in favor of Meders being sentenced to life in prison. But then local laws did not allow this.