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Alan Eugene Miller Execution Scheduled For Today

The State of Alabama is getting ready to execute Alan Eugene Miller tonight, September 26 2024, for a triple murder that took place in 1999

According to court documents Alan Eugene Miller would murder Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis at two separate locations as Miller thought his coworkers were talking behind his back

Alan Eugene Miller would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Alabama is planning to execute the triple killer by using nitrogen gas for only the second time. Since the use of nitrogen gas is relatively new there is still questions to how humane this method of execution is. Kenneth Smith was executed at the start of 2024 by this method

Alan Eugene Smith News

Alabama is preparing to carry out the nation’s second nitrogen gas execution on Thursday as disagreements continue over the humaneness of the new method of putting prisoners to death.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, is scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas at a south Alabama prison. Miller was convicted of killing three men — Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis — in back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.

Alabama in January put Kenneth Smith to death in the first nitrogen gas execution. The new execution method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the inmate’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen.

Alabama officials and advocates have argued over whether Smith suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution. He shook in seizure-like spasms for more than two minutes as he was strapped to the gurney. That was followed by several minutes of gasping breathing.

“Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia system is reliable and humane,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said last month in announcing a lawsuit settlement agreement that allowed for Miller’s execution. The state has scheduled a third nitrogen execution for November.

But death penalty opponents and advocates for other inmates facing nitrogen execution maintain that what happened with Smith shows there are problems with, or at least questions about, the new execution method. They said the method should be scrutinized more before it is used again.

“The fact that the state scheduled two more nitrogen executions without publicly acknowledging the failures of the first one is concerning. Going through with a second in the world nitrogen execution without reassessing the first, and under a continued veil of secrecy is not how a transparent government operates,” John Palombi, an attorney with the Federal Defenders Program who is representing another inmate facing a nitrogen execution in November, wrote in an email.

Death penalty opponents on Wednesday delivered petitions asking Gov. Kay Ivey to halt the execution. Miller is one of five death row inmates scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in the use of the death penalty in the U.S.

Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted of capital murder for the shootings that claimed three lives and shocked the city of Pelham, a suburban city just south of Birmingham.

The Aug. 5, 1999, workday had begun normally, a witness testified, until Miller showed up armed with a handgun saying he was “tired of people starting rumors on me.”

Police say that early that morning Miller entered Ferguson Enterprises and shot and killed two coworkers: Holdbrooks, 32, and Yancy, 28. He then drove 5 miles (8 kilometers) away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked, and shot Jarvis, 39.

All three men were shot multiple times. A prosecutor told jurors at the 2000 trial that the men “are not just murdered, they are executed.”

Miller had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but later withdrew the plea. A psychiatrist hired by the defense said that Miller was mentally ill, but he also said Miller’s condition wasn’t severe enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense, according to court documents.

Jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation and voted he receive the death penalty.

Alabama had previously attempted to execute Miller by lethal injection. But the state called off the execution after being unable to connect an IV line to the 351-pound (159-kilogram) inmate. The state and Miller agreed that any other execution attempt would be with nitrogen gas.

The state might be making minor adjustments to execution procedures. Miller had initially challenged the nitrogen gas execution plans, citing witness descriptions of what happened to Smith. But he dropped the lawsuit after reaching a settlement last month with the state.

Court records did not disclose the terms of the agreement, but Miller had suggested several changes to the state’s nitrogen gas protocol. Those included using medical grade nitrogen and a sedative beforehand. Will Califf, a spokesperson for Attorney General Marshall, last month said he could not confirm if the state had agreed to make changes to execution procedures.

Mara E. Klebaner, an attorney representing Miller, said last month that he “entered into a settlement on favorable terms to protect his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishments.”

https://fox59.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-alabama-to-carry-out-the-2nd-nitrogen-gas-execution-in-the-us

Alan Miller Execution

Alabama has carried out the second execution in the US using the controversial method of nitrogen gas, an experimental technique for humans that veterinarians have deemed unacceptable in the US and Europe for the euthanasia of most animals.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6.38pm local time at a south Alabama prison.

Miller shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes with his body at times pulling against the restraints, followed by about six minutes of gasping, according to the Associated Press.

The lethal method involves being strapped down with a respirator mask applied to the face and pure nitrogen piped in. The resulting oxygen deprivation will cause death by asphyxia.

Miller’s final words were “I didn’t do anything to be in here” and “I didn’t do anything to be on death row”, according to reporters who witnessed his death. His voice was at times muffled by the mask that covered his face from forehead to chin.

Miller’s death is the latest in an extraordinary week in the US in which five condemned men in five states have been executed over six days. On Friday, South Carolina killed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, in its first execution in 13 years, and on Tuesday, Texas killed Travis Mullis and Missouri put to death Marcellus Williams. Also on Thursday, Oklahoma executed Emmanuel Littlejohn.

The execution of Williams in Missouri prompted widespread outrage across the US and beyond after local prosecutors, the victim’s family and several trial jurors tried unsuccessfully to stop it from going ahead. There was no forensic evidence to tie Williams to the crime, and the current prosecuting attorney for St Louis county concluded that the prisoner was actually innocent.

Alabama pressed ahead with Miller’s execution on Thursday over the 1999 shootings that killed three of his co-workers – Lee Holdbrooks, Christopher Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis – despite deep misgivings about the new nitrogen method.

“Tonight, justice was finally served for these three victims,” Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, said in a statement. “His acts were not that of insanity, but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by his heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find comfort all these years later.”

The first nitrogen execution was carried out, also by Alabama, in January.

An eyewitness for the Associated Press described the death then of Kenneth Smith, 58. “Smith began to shake and writhe violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements … The force of his movements caused the gurney to visibly move at least once. Smith’s arms pulled against the straps holding him to the gurney. He lifted his head off the gurney and then fell back.”

Alabama described Smith’s death as a “textbook” execution.

Smith and Miller share a distinction in addition to the experimental killing method applied to them. Both men had the exceptionally unusual experience of surviving an execution attempt by lethal injection.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/alabama-nitrogen-gas-execution-alan-miller

Jamie Mills Execution Scheduled For Today

The State of Alabama is preparing to execute Jamie Mills today, May 30 2024, for a double murder that took place in 2004

According to court documents Jamie Mills and his common law wife JoAnne Mills would go to the home of an elderly couple, Floyd and Vera Hill, in order to rob them. Once he gained access to the home Jamie would attack the couple using a hammer, tire iron and a machete

Eighty seven year old Floyd Hill would die at the scene. Seventy two year old Vera Hill would die two and a half months later

When he was arrested Jamie Mills would deny being at the residence and that he had never met Floyd and Vera Hill. This turned out to be a lie. When police searched his vehicle they would find prescription drugs belonging to the Hills. Police would also find a duffel bag filled with bloody clothing

Jamie Mills would be arrested, convicted of the murders and sentenced to death

Update = Jamie Mills was executed by lethal injection

Jamie Mills News

A man convicted of killing an elderly couple in 2004 is set to be executed by Alabama on Thursday, which will make him the second man executed in the state this year and the sixth in the country.

The execution of Jamie Ray Mills, 50, comes about four months after that of Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was put to death by nitrogen gas despite his objections to the method.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall noted in a statement that Smith’s execution “marked the first time in the nation – and the world – that nitrogen hypoxia was used as the method of execution,” saying the state “has achieved something historic.” Four days after that execution, Marshall filed a motion to set Mills’ execution date, writing that “it was time for his death sentence to be carried out.”

“There is no doubt that Mills committed those offenses,” he wrote. “Mills’ convictions and sentence are final.”

The Alabama Supreme Court approved Marshall’s request for execution on March 20, allowing Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to set Thursday’s execution.

Here’s everything to know about Mills’ execution.

Mills is set to be executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, about 50 miles northeast of Mobile.

The execution is not set for a specific time but rather a 30-hour window that will begin at 12 a.m. Thursday, May 30, and end at 6 a.m. on Friday, May 31, according to reporting by The Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Mills will be put to death by lethal injection, considered a “primary method” of execution by all states and the federal government, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The kinds of drugs or combination of drugs vary across jurisdictions, with states using one, two, or three drugs to put inmates to death. The drugs vary depending on availability and many states have struggled to obtain the drugs as sometimes overseas suppliers decline to be involved in the death penalty.

“Most three-drug protocols use an anesthetic or sedative, followed by a drug to paralyze the inmate, and finally a drug to stop the heart. The one- and two-drug protocols typically use an overdose of an anesthetic or sedative to cause death,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Alabama Department of Corrections has not answered USA TODAY’s request for which drug or drugs they plan to use on Mills.

They also haven’t said what his last meal request is.

This week the 11th Circuit Court of Criminal Appeals denied two defense motions seeking a delay in Mills’ execution The defense can still seek a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mills argues that ex-wife JoAnn Mills, who testified against him in connection with the 2007 murders of Floyd and Vera Hill, lied on the stand. Floyd, 87, and Vera, 72, were beaten to death and robbed in their home in Guin, about 70 miles northwest of Birmingham.

JoAnn Mills was considered a key witness in the case, testifying that she saw her husband kill the Hills with a ball peen hammer, tire tool and a machete, according to court documents filed in Marion County. The couple was arrested a day after the murders, and were found with an assortment of items that connected them to the crime scene, court records show, including the suspected murder weapons in their car.

Jamie Mills asserted that the physical evidence collected not only proved his innocence, but supported the theory that he was framed by a local drug user he says had access to his vehicle on the night the Hills were killed.

He says it calls into question “not only the reliability of the capital trial verdict in this case, but also the integrity of the court,” according to the April 5 motion. About two weeks later, Jamie Mills filed another motion alleging that he might be strapped to the execution gurney for an extended period of time, which he says is “unnecessarily cruel.”

There is an “imminent risk” at play, his attorneys argue in the April 26 filing, saying that he could be subject to an “ unnecessarily prolonged and tortuous execution at the hands of state officials” with unreviewable authority.

Jamie Mills has asked the court for access to his attorney over the course of the execution, citing examples of four inmates were either executed or were subject to attempted executions that he argues were carried out improperly and caused unnecessary suffering.

All of the allegations Jamie Mills has brought forth in the weeks leading up to his execution could have been made earlier, according to a May 17 response by Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall.

“For a condemned inmate without the law or facts on his side, the best chance of delaying his execution is by filing multiple lawsuits in hopes of overwhelming the Eleventh Circuit and Supreme Court at the last minute,” causing the execution to be carried out under a “compressed or untenable timeline,” according to court records.

Jamie Mills has yet to provide any new evidence that could actually help clear his name, and instead he is “unwilling to believe that JoAnn might have simply done the right thing in testifying against him,” according to Marshall.

JoAnn Mills was only offered a life sentence instead of the death penalty because of the “sincerity and remorsefulness” she showed on the stand, according to Marshall.

Claims by Jamie Mills about the validity of JoAnn Mills’ testimony were “improper, untimely, and meritless,” serving as a way to a “further delay the execution,” Marshall wrote.

He also dismissed concerns of unnecessary cruelty that Mills could face at the hands of the corrections department, saying there’s no data to support the claim that he could be strapped to a gurney for an “unconstitutionally long time.” Marshall says that there is no constitutional right that would grant Jamie Mills the ability to have lawyers in the execution chamber.

Two federal judges denied Mills’ petitions for relief last week, both stating that he could have brought the information forward “several years ago.”

Emily Marks, a judge for the Middle District Court of Alabama, wrote in a May 21 response that the claims made against the the corrections department were “barred by statute of limitations.”

The delay in making these claims known recently is “unreasonable, unnecessary, and inexcusable … The practice of filing lawsuits and requests for stay of execution at the last minute where the facts were known well in advance is ineffective, unworkable, and must stop,” Marks wrote.

Marks did acknowledge that the correction department has been known on “several occasions” to subject inmates − including Joe James, Alan Miller, and Kenneth Smith − to “prolonged executions or execution attempts during which those inmates were unnecessarily strapped to the execution gurney.”

But it was up to Mills to bring the allegations forward sooner, Marks wrote.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/30/jamie-mills-execution-what-to-know/73806153007

Jamie Mills Execution

An Alabama man received a lethal injection Thursday for the 2004 deaths of an elderly couple who police said were attacked with a hammer, machete and tire tool during a robbery at their home.

Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. after a three-drug injection at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said.

Mills was the first inmate put to death by the state since Alabama became the first in the nation to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas months ago. Lethal injection remains Alabama’s default execution method unless a condemned inmate requests nitrogen gas or the electric chair.

Mills was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of Floyd Hill, 87, and his wife Vera Hill, 72. Prosecutors said they were attacked on June 24, 2004, at their home in Guin about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Birmingham during a robbery where $140 and prescription drugs were stolen.

“Tonight, two decades after he committed these murders, Jamie Mills has paid the price for his heinous crimes. I pray for the victims and their loved ones,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

As the execution began, Mills gave a thumbs up to family members, who were watching from a witness room.

“I love my family. I love my brother and sister. I couldn’t ask for more,” Mills said as he looked in the direction of his brother and sister. He also thanked his attorney, Charlotte Morrison of the Equal Justice Initiative. “Charlotte, you fought hard for me. I love y’all. Carry on.”

Some of his relatives cried softly through the execution.

As the first execution drug — a sedative — flowed, Mills appeared to quickly lose consciousness as a spiritual adviser prayed at the foot of the gurney.

In 2007, a jury convicted Jamie Mills of capital murder and voted 11-1 for the death sentence that was imposed by a judge.

Floyd Hill was the primary caregiver for his wife, who was diabetic and in poor health. He kept her medications in a tackle box in the couple’s kitchen. The Hills regularly held yard sales to supplement their income. When the couple’s granddaughter couldn’t reach them, officers arrived to find them in pools of blood in the backyard shed where they stored yard sale items.

Floyd Hill died from wounds to the head and neck and Vera Hill died about 12 weeks later from complications of head trauma, according to court filings. Investigators said the tacklebox, murder weapons and bloody clothes were later found in the trunk of Mills’ car.

Members of the victims’ family witnessed the execution and issued a statement that “justice has been served” after a 20-year wait.

“Our family now can have some closure to this heinous crime that he committed and our loving grandparents can rest in peace. Let this be a lesson for those that believe justice will not find you. Hopefully, this will prevent others from committing future crimes. God help us all,” the statement from the Hill and Freeman families read.

At the 2007 trial, JoAnn Mills became the key witness against her common-law husband. She testified that after staying up all night smoking methamphetamine, her husband took her along to the victims’ home where she testified she saw her husband repeatedly strike the couple in the backyard shed, court documents indicate.

In final appeals, attorneys for Mills, who maintained his innocence at trial, had argued newly obtained evidence showed the prosecution lied about having a plea agreement with Mills’ wife to spare her from seeking the death penalty against her if she testified against her husband.

JoAnn Mill’s trial attorney wrote in a February affidavit that before the 2007 trial, he met with the district attorney, who agreed to let her plead guilty to a lesser charge if she testified. On the stand, JoAnn Mills said she was only hoping to gain “some forgiveness from God” by testifying.

The Equal Justice Initiative said after the execution that prosecutors “lied, deceived and misrepresented the reliability of the evidence against Jamie Mills for 17 years.”

“There will come a day when governments recognize the perverse injustice of this process and the wrongfulness of this punishment. It will be a day that is too late for Jamie Mills which makes his death tragically regrettable and mournfully unjust,” the statement added.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday afternoon declined the request to halt the execution.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said there was a trove of evidence against Mills. “His actions were cold and calculated, and his assigned punishment has never been more deserved,” Marshall said.

On Jan. 25, Alabama executed inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, a first-of-its-kind method that stirred fresh debate over capital punishment. The state said the method was humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental.

Smith was executed by breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask, causing oxygen deprivation. It was the first new execution method used in the U.S. since lethal injection, now the most commonly used method, was introduced in 1982. Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett.

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-execution-elderly-couple-murder-lethal-injection-c7677a5fdf91312b6860c94de2afa565

Kenneth Eugene Smith Execution Scheduled For Today

Kenneth Eugene Smith is to be executed today, January 25 2024. unless the Supreme Court steps in

According to court documents Kenneth Eugene Smith and John Forrest Parker were paid a thousand dollars to murder the wife of Rev. Charles Sennett, Elizabeth Sennett. The woman would be found dead she had been badly beaten and stabbed to death

Rev Charles Sennett would never go to trial as he was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest.

Kenneth Eugene Smith and John Forrest Parker would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

John Forrest Parker was executed in 2010

Kenneth Eugene Smith execution if it goes through is suppose to be done using nitrogen gas which is controversial as it has been untested in recent history on humans. Smith who was almost executed before however the execution would be stopped after authorities failed to find a good vein for the lethal injection process

Kenneth Eugene Smith Execution

Kenneth Eugene Smith News

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to halt Alabama from proceeding with the nation’s first execution using nitrogen gas to carry out the death penalty on convicted murderer Kenneth Smith, who survived a botched lethal injection in 2022 that helped prompt a review of the state’s death penalty procedures.

The justices denied Kenneth Eugene Smith’s request to stay his execution, which is scheduled for Thursday, and declined to hear his legal challenge contending that a second execution attempt by Alabama – after the first failed attempt caused him severe trauma – would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

No justice publicly dissented from the decision.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, is separately contesting the legality of Alabama’s nitrogen gas protocol on Eighth Amendment and other grounds. That litigation still could come to the Supreme Court, potentially giving the justices another opportunity to decide whether to halt the execution. A judge ruled against Smith concerning the protocol on Jan. 10. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision on Wednesday.

Kenneth Eugene Smith’s attorney Robert Grass declined to comment.

A majority of the Supreme Court’s justices in 2022 cleared the way
, opens new tab for the first attempted execution of Smith, who was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder-for-hire plot. The nine-member court’s three liberal justices dissented from that previous decision.

Alabama’s gassing method – called nitrogen hypoxia – was designed to deprive Smith of oxygen by placing a mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen over his face.

Kenneth Eugene Smith’s botched execution was the third consecutive instance in which Alabama officials encountered problems or delays inserting intravenous lines for a scheduled lethal injection, with two of the executions, including Smith’s, eventually called off, according to court filings.

The problems prompted Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, to announce a review of the state’s execution procedures. Officials completed the review a few months later, saying they obtained new equipment and would add to the pool of available medical personnel for executions.

Smith in May 2023 challenged Alabama’s plan for a second execution attempt, asserting in state court that it would violate the Eighth Amendment after the first attempt, according to his lawyers, caused him severe physical and psychological pain, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

State officials during that first execution attempt repeatedly tried but failed to place the necessary intravenous lines or a central line in his collarbone area before calling off the execution after 11 p.m. Smith’s lawyers have characterized the experience as torture and said that it “exposed him to the severe mental anguish of a mock execution.”

Lower courts in Alabama dismissed Smith’s challenge. Smith’s lawyers urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, calling Alabama’s nitrogen-gas protocol “recently released and untested,” and “a novel method of execution that has never been attempted by any state or the federal government.”

Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall in a filing called the method “perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.”

Ivey set Smith’s execution to take place within a 30-hour time frame beginning at 12 a.m. on Thursday and expiring at 6 a.m. the following day.

Smith was convicted in the 1988 killing Elizabeth Sennett after he and an accomplice were hired by her husband Charles Sennett, a Christian minister who had taken out a large insurance policy on his wife, according to prosecutors. She was stabbed repeatedly and beaten with a blunt object.

Charles Sennett later committed suicide. Smith’s accomplice also was convicted and sentenced to death, with the execution carried out in 2010.

The U.N. human rights office on Jan. 16 called on Alabama to halt the planned execution, saying it could amount to torture and violate American commitments under international law.

U.S. states that still allow the death penalty have found it increasingly difficult to obtain barbiturates used in lethal-injection execution protocols, in part because of a European ban preventing pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs to be used in executions. Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have introduced new gas-based protocols.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/supreme-court-declines-halt-first-us-nitrogen-gas-execution-alabama-case-2024-01-24/

Casey McWhorter Execution Scheduled 11/16/23

Casey McWhorter is scheduled to be executed by the State of Alabama tonight for the murder of Edward Lee Williams Sr.

According to court documents Casey McWhorter and two teenage accomplices, including the son of the victim, would force their way into the home of Edward Lee Williams Sr. who would be murdered during the robbery

Casey McWhorter would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Casey McWhorter execution is scheduled for 11/16/23 however the Governor put a thirty hour window on the execution meaning McWhorter could be executed after midnight

Casey McWhorter was executed by lethal injection on November 16 2023

Casey McWhorter Case

Casey McWhorter spoke calmly about dying.

McWhorter, 49, is set to die by lethal injection sometime Thursday night or early Friday for the 1993 slaying of Edward Lee Williams Sr. in Marshall County. Gov. Kay Ivey set a 30-hour possibility for the execution to happen, with the timeframe ending at 6 a.m. Friday.

And, he said he’s ready.

“Let me make it very clear, I’m hoping that we get the stay and whatnot. But at the same time, I’m okay with whatever happens,” he said in a lengthy phone interview with AL.com late Wednesday. While he’s talked to reporters in the past, McWhorter said this was his final interview

“I’m in a great place,” he said confidently. “I’m in a really good place. I’m more concerned with my family and friends, how they’re going to deal with things. How they’re going to feel.”

He told his family not to be sad if he dies by lethal injection Thursday night. “I know where I’m going, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. My concern is how they’re going to handle things.”

McWhorter doesn’t argue that he’s guilty of murder. But the state is guilty, too, “in the most premeditated way possible.”

“If a normal citizen did what they are trying to do now, they would be labeled a Ted Bundy. They would be labeled one of the worst of the worst. But because its state-sanctioned, it’s okay.”

The case

McWhorter said he’s sorry to the Williams family, and he regrets what happened that night in 1993.

When asked what he would say to the family, he replied: “That I’m sorry. That I hope they found some peace and I hope that they’ve found, you know, reasons to smile at the memory of the person that’s gone.”

McWhorter is set to be executed for the 1993 shooting death of Williams Sr., who was the father of one of McWhorter’s friends. McWhorter was 18 at the time of the slaying, and has been on Alabama Death Row since 1994 after a jury voted 10-2 for him to die. He was 19 when, on Friday the 13th, he was sent to William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore where Alabama Death Row is housed and he will soon face execution.

It will have been more than 30 years since the crime.

Court records state that ahead of Williams Sr.’s death, McWhorter and two other teens — one who was Williams’ son, then-15-year-old Edward Lee Williams Jr.—formed a plan to rob the elder Williams. While court records say the teens planned to rob and shoot Williams Sr. at his home, McWhorter said that isn’t true.

“It was something that wasn’t supposed to happen. Yeah, we talked kid, tough talk… (but) it was just talk. It was never supposed to go down the way it went down.”

“He came home early. He wasn’t supposed to be there. It just spiraled so fast to hell.”

On the night of the slaying, court records state McWhorter and a 16-year-old co-defendant entered Williams’ house while he wasn’t home. They were there for hours, ransacking the house and making silencers for the two rifles they found inside. When Williams finally returned home, the teens struggled with him over the guns, before shooting Williams “at least 11 times,” records show.

The teens stole the victim’s wallet and fled in the victim’s truck, dividing the money and items taken from the house and separated.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2021.

While Casey McWhorter, at just 19, headed to death row, none of his co-defendants faced capital punishment.

After the 1993 shooting, McWhorter said he tried to take his own life by overdosing. “It just was playing over and over in my head, and I didn’t know how to get rid of it. And I still haven’t. I’ll never get rid of it.”

“There’s some things that you see that you can’t unsee, and the death of a person is one of those things.”

Growing up

Casey McWhorter said his childhood and resentment against his father affected him in a way where he always sought attention, even if that was bad attention. “It was a really mean cycle that I didn’t know how to communicate to people, I didn’t know how to fix in my own head. It put me in some really bad situations.”

When he was sentenced to death and hauled south down I-65 in a police car, McWhorter said all he could think was, “Oh my god, I’m going to death row.” The first night he spent there, McWhorter said he panicked about big, scary murderers breaking into his cell to kill him.

But then he listened and heard other men on death row talking and even laughing, being what he called “everyday people.”

“I thought, ‘did they carry me to the wrong place?’”

It took a bit of time to adjust and to grow up behind bars, but Casey McWhorter did. It was his grandmother who finally convinced him that he was better than the actions that put him there, and it was time to act like it.

Casey McWhorter, who proudly proclaimed he could have played college basketball, got his GED. Then, he took more than a dozen hours of college courses, remembering the work he put into his AP classes in high school. Science and math classes were his favorite, he said — skills that would have helped him if he had joined the Air Force, like he once thought he would.

After the Alabama Department of Corrections took away college classes for people who were sentenced to death and life without parole, McWhorter became a book worm, reading anything he could put his hands on. He started writing letters, becoming an avid pen pal.

Casey McWhorter’s closest friends also sit on death row. His former best friend, a man he calls a brother, was Max Landon Payne. Payne was executed in 2009, McWhorter recalled emotionally.

Now, one of his closest friends is Kenneth Smith. Smith was set to die last November, but prison workers couldn’t get his intravenous line established for the lethal drugs in the allotted time frame. Now, Smith is set to be the first person in the world to be executed using nitrogen hypoxia in January.

Smith claims he went through hours of torture while prison workers jabbed him with needles, trying to start the IV. Casey McWhorter said he worries that could be his experience.

He didn’t get to say goodbye to Smith, which made McWhorter emotional during an hour-long phone interview.

By his estimation, Casey McWhorter thinks about 75% of people on Alabama Death Row don’t deserve to be there – including him.

“I’ve said I did something wrong and I deserve time to be taken from me for that. But I don’t feel that my life should be that price,” he said.

Court records show two co-defendants took plea deals in the case. Edward Lee Williams Jr. is currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prevents juveniles who were under 18 at the time of a crime from being sentenced to death.

For many years, it upset him that he was the only one facing death for his crime.

Growing up, Casey McWhorter said he knew what capital punishment was. But he didn’t know it could apply to “someone like me.”

“I didn’t know that your average Joe could go out and get a capital case. I thought it was for the Ted Bundys, the Timothy McVeigh.”

“I didn’t think one mistake could put you here.”

He said the Williams family didn’t push for the death penalty, and it was prosecutors who were set on capital punishment.

He’s still holding out hope for a court-ordered stay, or for Gov. Kay Ivey to issue clemency, but he’s prepared to die. He’s still deciding if he’s going to make a final statement.

“At this point in the game it’s in God’s hands and I’m okay with whatever decision he makes.”

When asked what he wanted to tell the world before he died, Casey McWhorter said: “To not judge your fellow man by the worst mistake that they’ve made. But to judge that man by the lesson he learned from that mistake, and how he’s applied it to his life.”

Casey McWhorter spoke calmly about dying. He spoke calmly and quietly about everything, except when he mentioned his mom.

“That woman is a saint,” he said. “That’s what’s so hard on me sometimes. I’m ashamed of all the tears I’ve caused her, and she’s done nothing but love me and support me and be there for me. Sadly, it just took years for me to put that in perspective.”

“I hope I leave her enough to be proud.”

https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2023/11/casey-mcwhorter-alabama-death-row-inmate-facing-execution-i-didnt-think-one-mistake-could-put-you-here.html

Casey McWhorter Execution

An Alabama inmate convicted of killing a man during a 1993 robbery when he was a teenager was executed Thursday by lethal injection.

Casey McWhorter, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said. McWhorter was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role in the robbery and shooting death of Edward Lee Williams, 34, on Feb. 18, 1993.

Prosecutors said McWhorter, who was three months past his 18th birthday at the time of the killing, conspired with two younger teenagers, including Williams’ 15-year-old son, to steal money and other items from Williams’ home and then kill him. The jury that convicted McWhorter recommended a death sentence by a vote of 10-2, which a judge, who had the final decision, imposed, according to court records. The younger teens — Edward Lee Williams Jr. and Daniel Miner, who was 16 — were sentenced to life in prison, according to court records

“It’s kind of unfortunate that we had to wait so long for justice to be served, but it’s been served,” the victim’s brother, Bert Williams, told reporters after the execution. He added that the lethal injection provided McWhorter a peaceful death unlike the violent end his brother endured.

Prison officials opened the curtain to the execution chamber at 6:30 p.m. McWhorter, who was strapped to the gurney with the intravenous lines already attached, moved slightly at the beginning of the procedure, rubbing his fingers together, but his breathing slowed until it was no longer visible.

“I would like to say I love my mother and family,” McWhorter said in his final words. “I would like to say to the victim’s family I’m sorry. I hope you find peace.”

McWhorter also used his final words to take an apparent verbal jab at his executioner, the prison warden who faced domestic violence accusations decades ago, saying that, “it’s not lost on me that a habitual abuser of women is carrying out this procedure.”

Prosecutors said McWhorter and Miner went to the Williamses’ home with rifles and fashioned homemade silencers from a pillow and a milk jug. When the older Williams arrived home and discovered the teens, he grabbed the rifle held by Miner. They began to struggle over it, and McWhorter fired the first shot at Williams, according to a summary of the crime in court filings. Williams was shot a total of 11 times.

April Williams, the victim’s daughter, said her father today should be spending time with his grandchildren and enjoying retirement.

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him and how I miss him,” April Williams said in a statement read by Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm. “Casey McWhorter had several hours in that house to change his mind from taking the life of my Dad.”

Defense attorneys had unsuccessfully sought a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, citing McWhorter’s age at the time of the crime. They argued the death sentence was unconstitutional because Alabama law does not consider a person to be a legal adult until age 19.

McWhorter, who called himself a “confused kid” at the time of the slaying, said he would encourage young people going through difficult times to take a moment before making a life-altering mistake like he did.

“Anything that comes across them that just doesn’t sit well at first, take a few seconds to think that through,” he told The Associated Press in an interview last week. “Because one bad choice, one stupid mistake, one dumb decision can alter your life — and those that you care about — forever.” McWhorter maintained that he did not intend to kill Williams. Attorney General Steve Marshall said as Williams was on the ground wounded that McWhorter shot him in the head.

McWhorter spent nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row, making him among the longest-serving inmates of the state’s 165 death row inmates.

“Edward Lee Williams’ life was taken away from him at the hands of Casey A. McWhorter, and tonight, Mr. McWhorter answered for his actions,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

The Rev. Jeff Hood, a death row minister who works with an anti-death penalty group, accompanied McWhorter into the execution chamber as his spiritual adviser. “It is not lost on me that he was a murderer and so are all Alabamians tonight. I pray that we will all learn to stop killing each other,” Hood said in a statement.

The Alabama execution occurred the same night that Texas executed a man convicted of strangling a 5-year-old girl who was taken from a Walmart store nearly 22 years ago.

McWhorter was the second inmate put to death this year in Alabama after the state paused executions for several months to review procedures following a series of failed or problematic executions. James Barber, 64, was executed by lethal injection in July for the 2001 beating death of a woman.

Alabama plans in January to make the nation’s first attempt to put an inmate to death using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia has been authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi, but no state has used it.

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-death-penalty-lethal-injection-a491821db2a2a29e4e208ca127c071c7

James Barber Execution Scheduled For Tonight

James Barber was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the robbery and murder of Dorothy Epps. Now he is scheduled to be executed tonight, July 20 2023

According to court documents James Barber knew Dorothy Epps for the majority of his life and decided to rob her. Barber would head to the farm owned by Dorothy Epps when he knew her husband would be out of town and would murder the seventy five year old woman

James Barber would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

James Barber was executed by lethal injection on July 20 2023

James Barber News

Amid fears of another botched execution, Alabama plans to put James Barber to death on Thursday or early Friday after a federal appeals court upheld a decision not to halt his execution despite his claim that lethal injection could result in cruel and unusual punishment.

Barber, sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps, is scheduled to be executed at any time during a 30-hour period that began at midnight Thursday morning and will last until 6 a.m. Friday, court documents show.

The inmate sought to have a US District Court prevent the state from executing him by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia, an alternative to lethal injection that is allowed under Alabama law but has yet to be used.

Barber argued an execution by lethal injection would violate his rights under the Eighth Amendment, according to his initial complaint, which pointed to three allegedly botched executions in Alabama last year, in which Barber’s attorneys said Department of Corrections officials struggled to set intravenous lines in the condemned inmates’ veins to deliver the fatal drugs.

One of those executions ultimately resulted in the death of the inmate while the two others were called off, with the state citing time constraints due to late-night court battles that prevented the executions from being carried out before the inmates’ execution warrants expired. Taken together, they prompted heightened scrutiny of Alabama’s lethal injection process and led Gov. Kay Ivey last November to ask Attorney General Steve Marshall to halt executions for a “top-to-bottom review” of its protocol.

In February, Ivey said executions could resume after the Department of Corrections completed its review and said it would take several steps to address issues with the lethal injection protocol, including expanding the pool of personnel available for the execution team and conducting rehearsals to ensure staff were well-trained, among other steps.

But Barber – who would be the first inmate executed since the review – argued Alabama had “not made any meaningful improvements to their lethal injection protocol,” according to his motion for a preliminary injunction, other than by expanding the window in which officials could carry out an execution

In his appeal, Barber’s attorneys argued he faces a “substantial risk of severe harm” due to his elevated body mass index, which they said makes it more difficult to access his veins. This complication makes him vulnerable to suffering a failed lethal injection, they said.

Instead, Barber had asked to be put to death by nitrogen gas. The state legislature has approved this alternative execution method, but the state has said it hasn’t finalized its protocols.

The US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama denied Barber’s motion, prompting his attorneys to appeal earlier this week to the 11th Circuit. That court, however, similarly rejected Barber’s argument by upholding the district court’s decision in an opinion Wednesday. The judges wrote, in part, that the inmate’s claim he would suffer the same problems as the inmates before him was “purely speculative” in light of the Department of Corrections’ newly-implemented changes

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/20/us/alabama-james-barber-execution/index.html

James Barber Execution

Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections after two failed executions prompted the governor to order an internal review of procedures.

James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison.

Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed.

Before he was put to death, Barber told his family he loved them and apologized to Epps’ family.

“I want to tell the Epps’ family I love them. I’m sorry for what happened,” Barber said. “No words would fit how I feel.”

Barber said he wanted to tell the governor “and the people in this room that I forgive you for what you are about to do.”

It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions last fall. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions in November to conduct an internal review of procedures.

The move came after the state halted two lethal injections because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men’s veins.

Attorneys for inmate Alan Miller said prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour as they unsuccessfully tried to connect an IV line during Miller’s aborted execution in September, at one point leaving him hanging vertically on a gurney. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problems, also was botched, a claim the state has disputed.

Barber’s attorneys unsuccessfully asked the courts to block the execution, saying the state has a pattern of failing “to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner.”

The Supreme Court denied Barber’s request for a stay without comment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent from the decision that was joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She said the court was allowing “Alabama to experiment again with a human life.”

“The Eighth Amendment demands more than the State’s word that this time will be different. The Court should not allow Alabama to test the efficacy of its internal review by using Barber as its ‘guinea pig,’” Sotomayor wrote.

After his last words, Barber spoke with a spiritual adviser who accompanied him into the death chamber. As the drugs were administered, Barber’s eyes closed and his abdomen pulsed several times. His breathing slowed until it was no longer visible.

Barber’s execution came hours after Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.

The last-minute legal battle centered on Alabama’s ability to obtain intravenous access in past executions. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the two intravenous lines were connected to Barber with “three sticks in six minutes.”

The state wrote in legal filings that it was using different IV team members. The state also changed the deadline to carry out the execution from midnight to 6 a.m. to give more time for preparations and to carry out last-minute appeals.

“Justice has been served. This morning, James Barber was put to death for the terrible crime he committed over two decades ago: the especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel murder of Dorothy Epps,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement.

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-death-penalty-lethal-injection-50a202c6c71dd7ea269c722b9c5afe0a