August 11, 2007

Alabama

Federal judge rejects suit by death row inmate

By BRENDAN KIRBY, Press-Register

A federal judge in Mobile on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a death row
inmate in Atmore who challenged Alabama's method of execution, ruling that
he waited too long to file the complaint.

Thomas D. Arthur, 65, convicted of murder and sentenced in 1992 to die, sued
in May and asked U.S. District Judge William Steele to order a postponement
of his Sept. 27 execution date. But Steele ruled Friday that the timing of
the lawsuit -- coming five years after the state switched to lethal
injection as its primary method of execution -- left little doubt that
Arthur's true goal was delay his punishment rather than force a change in
how it is carried out.

Steele wrote that it would simply be impossible to resolve the complaint on
its merits before the Sept. 27 execution date. Allowing the lawsuit to
proceed would allow any prisoner to file a lawsuit shortly before his
execution date, confident that the court would be required to delay the
execution.

"The perversity of this result would alone compel rejection of the
plaintiff's proposal," Steele wrote.

Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw and state prison officials, as well
as Arthur's New York-based lawyers, could not be reached for comment Friday
afternoon.

A jury in Jefferson County -- where Arthur's trial was moved because of
publicity in Colbert County -- convicted him of capital murder in the 1982
death of Troy Wicker. In January 1992, a judge sentenced Arthur to death.

Arthur has been on death row at Holman Correctional Facility ever since.

Arthur's federal lawsuit alleged that the manner in which Alabama carries
out lethal injection violates the Constitution's prohibition against "cruel
and unusual punishment" because the drug used to stop an inmate's heart
causes "agonizing pain" if the person has not been properly anesthetized.

All of Arthur's appeals have been exhausted, but he was seeking a new trial
and DNA testing he insisted would prove his innocence.

Lethal-injection challenges have swept the nation over the past year,
becoming the latest tactic among lawyers who represent defendants who have
been sentenced to death. Lawyers for the states deride them as transparent
stalling tactics.

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Source : Press-Register

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