The 6th Execution of 2024
Alabama Death Row inmate Jamie Ray Mills was executed by
lethal injection on May 30, 2024 for the brutal slayings of an elderly couple
with a machete, ball-peen hammer, and a tire iron two decades ago.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, in announcing the execution had
been carried out, stated that “Almost 20 years ago, the grandchildren of Floyd
and Vera Hill, worried for their grandparents, filed a missing-person report
only for police to discover the couple had been brutally and horrendously
beaten to death. The Hills’ lives were taken at the hands of Jamie Mills. The
evidence in this case is overwhelming, and Mr. Mills is undoubtedly guilty.”
“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 as they continue to grieve.”
Mills had maintained his innocence, and didn’t mention the
crime in his final words.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also issued a
statement Thursday night, saying Mills’ “actions were cold and calculated, and
his assigned punishment has never been more deserved.”
Mills was convicted and sentenced to die for the June 24,
2004 beating deaths of Floyd and Vera Hill. The elderly couple were beaten at
their Marion County home before, prosecutors said, Mills and his former wife
stole cash and prescription medication.
The execution
The execution was carried out at the William C. Holman
Correctional Facility in Atmore using the state’s three-drug lethal injection
cocktail instead of nitrogen gas, which was used for the first time in the
nation in Alabama in January’s execution of Kenneth Smith. Mills did not elect to change his
execution method to nitrogen when inmates were given the opportunity to do so
in June 2018.
The curtain to the execution chamber opened at 6:07 p.m.,
while several of Mills’ five witnesses cried softly in the witness room. One of
his witnesses whispered, “Oh my God” as the curtain opened.
During the execution, his family continued to cry softly.
One woman whispered, “Oh god” at one point.
After the curtain opened, Mills gave a thumbs up motion
towards the witness room where his attorney and family watched, along with
members of the media. He was softly trembling as the death warrant was read.
His last words were: “I love my family. I love my brother
and sister. I couldn’t ask for more. Charlotte, you fought hard for me. I love
ya’ll, carry on.”
He was referring to Charlotte Morrison, his attorney from
the Equal Justice Initiative. She was in the witness room.
Mills continuously gave a thumbs up to his family. At 6:12
p.m., his spiritual advisor approached him and prayed over him. Mills mouthed
“I love you” to his family. About a minute after that, Mills appeared to slip
into unconsciousness.
At 6:14 p.m., a prison guard in the execution chamber
performed the standard consciousness check by flicking Mills’ eyelid, yelling
his name, and pinching his arm. Mills did not respond to any of those actions.
Curtains to the execution room closed at 6:19 p.m. and his
official time of death was 6:26 p.m.
The execution started about an hour and a half after the
United States Supreme Court issued orders rejecting Mills’ two appeals and a
request to stay the execution.
Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm
said the team who starts intravenous lines for the lethal injection didn’t have
any issues finding a vein. Similar issues plagued several executions over the
past years, with multiple being called off after IV lines couldn’t be started
in time.
He said that Mills had “two sticks” and that each of the two
IV lines were started on the first try.
The members of the execution team who start IVs were
replaced following the governor’s three-month halt to executions at the end of
2022 and into 2023. Hamm credited that personnel change to the quick
turn-around of Mills’ execution.
Members of the Hill family witnessed the execution, but
requested their names not be shared.
The family of the Hills released a statement for Commissioner
John Hamm to read following Mills’ death. It said, “In the past 20 years, our
family has been seeking justice, and today justice has been served. However, it
took 20 years to do so. Our family believes in the judicial system, no matter
how long it takes.”
“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.”
Mills’ last hours
Before the execution, Alabama prison spokesperson Kelly
Betts provided a recollection of Mills’ last 24 hours, including his last
meals.
On Wednesday, he was visited by his brother, sister,
brother-in-law, sister-in-law, spiritual advisor and a friend. He ate breakfast
and lunch, along with snacks throughout the day. He refused his dinner. He also
had phone calls with family members and his attorney.
On Thursday, Mills was visited by his brother, sister,
brother-in-law, sister-in-law, spiritual advisor, and attorney. He didn’t make
any phone calls.
His breakfast on Thursday was made up of eggs, gravy,
prunes, oatmeal, and biscuits. He had snacks including potato chips, a candy
bar, and a Sunkist and cola drink. His last meal consisted of a seafood platter
with three large shrimp, two catfish filets, three oysters, three onion rings,
and one stuffed crab.
Mills, 50, had fought his execution in two
separate federal lawsuits: One challenging the state’s lethal injection
protocol and another claiming his former wife lied when testifying against him.
Wednesday afternoon, Mills’ lawyers from the Equal Justice
Initiative appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after having had the appeal
rejected by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.
EJI, which represented Mills for many years released a
statement after the execution: “By failing to honestly disclose the
conversations and arrangements with the state’s main witness against Jamie
Mills at trial, state prosecutors have lied, deceived and misrepresented the
reliability of the evidence against Jamie Mills for 17 years. They weren’t
honest with Jamie Mills, with the jury, the judge, state and federal appeal
courts or the public. New evidence documenting this deceit has been dismissed
as ‘too late,’ making finality more important than fairness. This is not
justice.”
The group added, “Jamie Mills becomes another person
needlessly killed by state officials who comfortably tolerate state deception,
violation of the law and breach of fundamental, constitutional rights to carry
out a death sentence they claim upholds the rule of law.”
The crime
Floyd Hill and Vera Hill had been married 55 years and lived
in Guin, a small town in Marion County. According to an inscription on his
gravestone, Floyd Hill was an Army veteran of World War II.
Vera Hill, 72, was in poor health. Though 15 years older, Floyd
Hill acted as her caretaker.
Court documents laid out the events surrounding the couple’s
brutal deaths on June 24, 2004.
Jamie Mills and his then-wife, JoAnn Mills, went to the
Hills’ house on County Road 54. According to JoAnn Mills’ testimony at Jamie
Mills’ trial, the Hills let the couple inside for Jamie Mills to use their
phone. After he made several phone calls, Vera Hill wanted to show JoAnn Mills
some of the items in their shed that she was planning to sell at a yard sale.
Floyd Hill unlocked the shed and everyone looked at the
items for sale, according to JoAnn Mills’ testimony. After that, Jamie Mills
and Floyd Hill continued to talk inside the shed while the women stepped
outside.
JoAnn Mills said that she heard a loud noise and saw her
husband swinging something. She followed Vera Hill back inside the shed, when
she saw Floyd Hill lying on the ground. Then, she said, Jamie Mills hit Vera
Hill in the head with a hammer.
Jamie Mills continued to beat the couple, JoAnn Mills said.
At some point, the Mills left the shed and went into the Hill home and stole
various items, including Floyd Hills’ wallet, Vera Hills’ purse, a phone, and a
tacklebox containing prescription medication.
Guin police stopped the couple the next day when they were
leaving their house with the murder weapons and bloody clothes.
The Hills were found after one of their adult grandchildren
stopped by to check on them the night of the murders and couldn’t find them.
When police arrived and found the elderly couple in their shed, Floyd Hill was
pronounced dead at the scene.
Vera Hill was taken to a nearby hospital with serious
injuries, and later transferred to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. She died
September 12, 2004. Court records show her cause of death was “complications of
blunt head trauma.”
JoAnn Mills initially told police a local drug dealer had
committed the murders.
But the murder weapons, along with Jamie Mills’ bloody
clothes, were found in the Mills car trunk. Jamie Mills has argued that the car
trunk didn’t lock, and the drug dealer had access to the couple’s car on the
day of the crime.
Mills maintained his innocence.
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