Alabama inmate due to die Thursday loses federal appeal
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A death row inmate trying to halt his scheduled execution Thursday lost a critical decision in a federal appeals court Tuesday.

In a 2-1 ruling, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that said Luther Jerome Williams waited too late to file a lawsuit challenging Alabama's lethal injection procedures. The 11th Circuit said Williams' real goal is to delay his execution for "many months, if not years."

Williams, 47, of Birmingham, is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman Prison in Atmore. He was sentenced to death for the robbery and shooting dealt of John Robert Kirk on Jan. 23, 1988, in Tuscaloosa County. Kirk was killed when he stopped his truck along Interstate 59 while driving home from work.

After Attorney General Troy King asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for Williams, he filed a suit in April contending Alabama's lethal injection procedures don't adequately sedate inmates and cause them to suffer pain that is unconstitutionally cruel.

Upholding U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller's decision to dismiss Williams' suit as tardy, the 11th Circuit's majority decision said Williams didn't sue until five years after Alabama began using lethal injection.

"Both the State and the victim's family have a strong interest in the timely enforcement of Williams' death sentence," Judge Joel Dubina wrote in the majority decision.

In dissent, Judge Rosemary Barkett said Williams filed his suit 16 days after the attorney general sought an execution date and that should be considered filing promptly. She said Williams' claim about Alabama's death penalty procedures should be heard in court.

"A civilized and just society would surely want to assure itself that it does not administer executions in a manner that is needlessly painful and unconstitutionally torturous, especially when the solution - to provide sufficient anesthetic to safeguard against painful death - would appear so simple and easy to accommodate," she wrote.

An attorney for Williams wrote Gov. Bob Riley on Monday, asking him to delay Williams' execution until after a federal judge holds a trial in October on two other inmates' claims that Alabama's lethal injection procedures constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Riley's communications director, Jeff Emerson, said the governor and his legal staff were reviewing the letter Tuesday, but no decision had been announced.

Riley turned down a similar request from death row inmate Darrell Grayson before he was executed July 26 at Holman Prison in Atmore.


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August 22, 2007

Alabama

Execution set in veteran's killing

Williams to die Thursday after court rejects lethal injection appeal

STAN DIEL, The Birmingham News

Luther Jerome Williams, who has spent 17 years on Alabama's Death Row for
the 1988 execution-style killing of a World War II veteran, will be executed
on Thursday.

Williams, of Birmingham, was convicted of the Jan. 23, 1988, killing of John
Kirk of Pickens County. Kirk had a problem with his truck and was stopped at
the side of Interstate 20/59 in eastern Tuscaloosa County when Williams and
two other men robbed him. Williams forced Kirk to kneel in the nearby woods
and shot him in the back of the head, according to court documents.

Kirk, who worked for Plantation Pipe Co. in Helena, was a veteran of the
World War II landing at Omaha Beach, according to a report in The Tuscaloosa
News.

Williams, 47, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at Holman prison near
Atmore at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The two men who were with Williams pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Trosky
Eric Gregory, now 43, is incarcerated at Staton Correctional Facility in
Elmore. Albert Carmichael Jr., now 45, was paroled in 2004.

The U.S. Supreme Court in March declined to stop Williams' execution. He had
one 11th hour court appeal still pending, claiming that lethal injection is
cruel and unusual punishment, but that was rejected Tuesday by the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The court in its ruling upheld a lower court decision that said Williams
waited too late to file a lawsuit challenging Alabama's lethal injection
procedures. The 11th Circuit said Williams' real goal is to delay his
execution for "many months, if not years."

Williams raised that claim in a suit filed April 10 and dismissed by a
federal judge on July 30.

Several other Alabama Death Row inmates have appealed on the same grounds,
none successfully. Williams also unsuccessfully appealed to state courts,
arguing that his trial lawyer didn't thoroughly review information about the
time Williams spent in a mental health facility. That appeal also failed.

An attorney for Williams wrote Gov. Bob Riley on Monday, asking him to delay
Williams' execution until after a federal judge holds a trial in October on
two other inmates' claims that Alabama's lethal injection procedures
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Riley's communications director, Jeff Emerson, said the governor and his
legal staff were reviewing the letter Tuesday, but no decision had been
announced.

Riley turned down a similar request from Death Row inmate Darrell Grayson
before he was executed July 26 at Holman Prison in Atmore.

---

Source : The Birmingham News

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