Supreme Court puts Alabama execution on
hold for seventh time
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[November 04, 2016]
By David Beasley
(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on
Thursday ordered a last-minute hold on the Alabama execution of Thomas
Douglas Arthur, the seventh time he has avoided capital punishment for
the 1982 murder of his girlfriend's husband.
Arthur, now 74, has been on death row for more than three decades having
been convicted of shooting to death Troy Wicker as he slept, court
records showed. Prosecutors said Arthur's girlfriend, Judy Wicker, paid
him $10,000 to kill her husband.
Alabama had sought to execute Arthur despite questions about its death
penalty process following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that
struck down a Florida law giving judges powers that juries should wield
in deciding death eligibility.
The U.S. Supreme Court has since ordered Alabama to review similar
practices in four other cases.
"Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicant, it
is ordered that execution of the sentence of death is hereby stayed
pending further order of the undersigned or of the court," stated the
one-page order signed by Justice Clarence Thomas.
The order did not state a reason for the stay of execution.
Arthur's attorneys have challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's
lethal injection method of execution on the grounds that it is cruel and
unusual punishment.
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In their challenge, his lawyers claimed that midazolam, the first drug
that is used in executions causes "excruciatingly painful and agonizing
effects of the second and third drugs.”
Arthur's scheduled execution followed three trials and another man's
confession to the crime. In all, Alabama had scheduled Arthur's
execution six times before Thursday.
He had been scheduled to die on Thursday evening at the Holman
Correctional Facility in Atmore. He would have been this year's 18th
U.S. execution and the state's second, the Death Penalty Information
Center said.
Arthur had two convictions overturned on constitutional grounds,
including improper introduction of evidence about a prior murder
conviction. After his third conviction in 1991, he asked the jury to
sentence him to death, seeking more time with his children during prison
visits and a private cell.
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![](../images/110416pics/news_d9.jpg)
Death row inmate Tommy Arthur, scheduled to be executed November 3,
2016, is seen in an undated picture from the Alabama Department of
Corrections. Alabama Department of Corrections/Handout via Reuters
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The killing of Troy Wicker in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, occurred when
Arthur was in a prison work release program after an earlier murder.
Judy Wicker told police a black man raped her, knocked her
unconscious and shot her husband at their home. Arthur, who is
white, disguised himself as a black man, prosecutors said.
At her trial, Judy Wicker denied Arthur was the killer but later
changed her testimony during his trial, Arthur's lawyers said. She
was convicted of murder and paroled after 10 years in prison,
according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
In 2008, another inmate, Bobby Ray Gilbert, confessed to killing
Wicker but a state court held that Gilbert and Arthur had conspired
to submit a fake confession.
Limited crime scene testing found no DNA link to Gilbert or Arthur.
Alabama lost a rape kit that might have cleared Arthur, his lawyers
said.
(Reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing
by Grant McCool, Bill Trott, Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry)
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