The state announced its plans to carry out the first execution of an inmate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willie B. Smith Willie B. Smith is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday for the fatally shooting Sharma Ruth Johnson with a shotgun. Johnson was abducted, robbed and killed in Birmingham in 1991. He was sentenced to death in 1992….
Alabama Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth is making a push to reduce the time it takes for a death row inmate to be put to death. The proposed bill would make three main provisions to the current system to make it happen. “This Bill has been designed to proved both equal justice to inmates, and swift justice to their victims,” says…
An Alabama inmate is asking an appellate court to halt his upcoming lethal injection using a sedative that his lawyers say has “failed to work properly in four states.” Robert Melson’s attorneys on May 25 asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay. Melson is scheduled to be executed June 8 for the slayings of three…
Lawyers for Alabama inmate Tommy Arthur say his lethal injection should be delayed because of issues with the state’s execution drugs. His attorneys filed court papers Wednesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They pointed to issues with the state’s last lethal injection and say the state will give Arthur an ineffective anesthetic before giving him drugs to…
