The controversial execution of Nathaniel Woods was carried
out on March 5, 2020 in Alabama just minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a
temporary stay, issued only hours earlier, reported ABC News.
Woods was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. local time, according
to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Advocates had argued Woods, who was convicted in the murder
of three police officers in 2004, did not directly take part in the slayings
and should have his execution delayed.
The decision came after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey reviewed the
letter requesting a reprieve from the death sentence, but said she would allow
the execution to proceed.
"Governor Ivey does not presently intend to exercise
her powers of commutation or reprieve in this case," general counsel
William G. Parker Jr. wrote. "While Governor Ivey reserves the right to
grant clemency at any time before an execution is carried out, she has
determined, based on her review of the complete record, including the matters
presented in your letter, that clemency for Mr. Woods at this hour is
unwarranted."
Woods, 44, was killed by lethal injection at the William C.
Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.
"The fight is far from over. Nathaniel is an innocent
man, and that will always be the truth. We are not giving up," the family
said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Supporters were calling for Ivey to grant a reprieve. As of Thursday morning, Ivey offered no
sign that she would intervene in Williams' case and it appeared the execution
would go as planned.
Nathaniel Woods in an undated photo from the Alabama Dept.
of Corrections. Martin Luther King, III, the son of civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr., as well as family members of Woods, a condemned Alabama
inmate, are asking the governor to to stop his execution. Woods is scheduled to
be executed on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Woods and co-defendant Kerry Spencer
were convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of three Birmingham
police officers.Alabama Dept. of Corrections via AP
But late Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
issued a temporary stay in the minutes leading up to the execution of Woods,
who was convicted of capital murder in the 2004 killings of three Birmingham,
Alabama, police officers.
He already requested his final meal of sweet potatoes,
spinach, chicken patty, chicken leg quarter, cooked apples, fries, two oranges
and orange flavored drink, according to a statement from Alabama Department of
Corrections. However, he only took one bite of the chicken and left the rest of
his meal untouched, the statement read.
Woods also made calls earlier that day to his father,
sister, daughter and mother, as well as friends. His imam was expected to be
the only person present at the execution.
At news of the temporary stay, the son of civil rights icon
Martin Luther King Jr., who had joined a chorus of calls to halt the execution,
praised the move.
"Amazing news!! The Supreme Court has issued a stay of
execution for Nathaniel Woods!! Great work everyone!" Martin Luther King
III wrote on Twitter.
Corrections told ABC News that the execution warrant did not
run out until 11:59 p.m., meaning they had until then to carry out the
execution once the court decided to lift the temporary stay.
On Tuesday, King sent a letter to Ivey, a Republican,
reading, "I stand with hundreds of thousands of Americans across Alabama
and the nation, pleading with you not to execute Nathaniel Woods."
In his letter, King, who was born in Alabama, told Ivey her
state was "set to kill a man who is very likely innocent."
King told Fox News Thursday, "If a person is innocent,
they should not be killed in this country. People have been killed and [hanged]
for doing nothing. And in this context, if that is the prospect, we ought to at
least go through the facts, go through the information, give the system the
opportunity to work if it did not work."
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 91,000 people had signed
a petition on the website Change.org to stop the execution of Woods, who would
become the first person executed in Alabama this year and the 67th since the
state reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Ivey noted two Alabama citizens had
been executed since 1983 as being accomplices to capital murder.
Woods' alleged accomplice, Kerry Spencer, confessed to being
the sole gunman who killed the officers with a high-powered weapon, but
separate juries convicted him and Woods of four capital murder charges,
including killing the officers in the course of committing another crime.
"The state offered the testimony of 39 witnesses at
Woods' capital murder trial, including Officer Michael Collins, 25 other law
enforcement officers, and forensic experts," Ivey wrote in a lengthy
statement announcing Woods' execution. "There is no evidence, and no
argument has been made, that Nathaniel Woods tried to stop the gunman from
committing these heinous crimes. In fact, he later bragged about his
participation in these horrific murders. As such, the jury did not view Woods'
acts as those of an innocent bystander; they believed that he was a fully
engaged participant."
Gov. Kay Ivey gives the State of the State Address to a
joint session of the Alabama Legislature, Feb. 4, 2020, in the old house
chamber of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.Vasha Hunt/AP
Spencer's trial was held before Woods' case was heard by a
jury, but his execution date has yet to be set.
During both trials, prosecutors presented the juries the
theory that Woods and Spencer acted in tandem to lure the officers into the
apartment to kill them.
On June 17, 2004, Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen,
Harley Chisholm III and Charles Bennett were shot to death while executing a
misdemeanor assault warrant for Woods at a suspected crack house in Birmingham.
A fourth officer was also shot, but survived and testified against Woods.
A jury convicted Woods in December 2005, and in a nonunanimous
verdict of 10-2 recommended a sentence of death.
Chisholm's sister has come out against the execution, saying
in a statement to ABC News provided by Wood's family: "I am writing to
express my sincere wishes for Governor Ivey to stop the execution of Nathaniel
Woods. I am the sister of Harley Chisholm III. I do not think that Nathaniel is
guilty of murder. I urge Governor Ivey to reconsider her decision not to
intervene."
"There is no harm in allowing more time for the courts
to investigate," the statement added. "I want the new evidence to be
brought forward and evaluated by new attorneys. Please do not move forward with
the hasty decision to execute Nathaniel. My conscience will not let me live
with this if he dies. I beg you to have mercy on him."
Alabama State Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a
statement Wednesday that Woods was "correctly found guilty and sentenced
to death by a jury of his peers."
"The only injustice in the case of Nathaniel Woods is
that which was inflicted on those four policemen that terrible day in
2004," Marshall said in the statement.
Woods appealed his conviction, arguing his lawyer gave him
inadequate representation by misinforming him that he could not be convicted of
capital murder as an accomplice and convincing him to reject a plea deal
prosecutors offered him of 20 to 25 years in prison, according to court
records.
"A jury of Mr. Woods' peers convicted him of four
counts of capital murder," Ivey wrote Thursday night. "In the past 15
years, his conviction has been reviewed at least nine times, and no court has
found any reason to overturn the jury's decision."
Woods' appeal was denied by the Alabama Supreme Court and
the U.S. Supreme Court.
In his letter to Ivey, King stated that Woods "has
never had a fair trial" and has not gotten the opportunity to present new
evidence since his conviction bolstering his claim that Spencer acted alone and
that there was never a plan to lure the officers into an ambush.
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