Ronald Smith Jr. is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Thursday for the 1994 murder of a convenience store clerk — a death sentence imposed by a judge despite the jury's recommendation of a life sentence.
A request to halt the execution is pending at the US Supreme Court, but Alabama Department of Corrections spokesperson Bob Horton told BuzzFeed News the department does not plan to wait on the high court to make a decision on whether to halt the execution.
John Palombi, the assistant federal defender and Smith’s lawyer, told BuzzFeed News that he was told by state officials that unless there was formal action from the Supreme Court, the execution would start at 6:00 p.m. Central Time.
Smith Jr., 45, a former Eagle Scout and Army reservist, shot and killed 26-year-old Casey Wilson while robbing a Huntsville convenience store in 1994. The jury had recommended a life sentence without parole for Smith, but a judge overrode the decision — as is allowed under the state’s death sentencing law — and imposed the death penalty.
The judge had sentenced Smith to death based on his determination that the murder was "an execution-style slaying” during which the store clerk was “pistol-whipped and beaten into helpless submission, but Smith nevertheless killed him to avoid later identification and that Smith was indifferent to or enjoyed the clerk’s suffering, bragging and smiling or laughing about the killing when he described it," according to court documents.
Smith's attorneys have asked the US Supreme Court to hear his case and stop his execution on the grounds that Alabama’s death penalty sentencing law is unconstitutional based on its similarities to Florida’s sentencing law, which was struck down by the US Supreme Court in January. The state has opposed the request.
In the case of Hurst v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that Florida’s death sentencing law violated the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial by permitting a judge to enter a sentence of death.
On Thursday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Smith's request to stop his execution. In that appeal, Smith Jr. had challenged the constitutionality of Alabama’s three-drug lethal injection protocol, saying that midazolam — a controversial sedative at the center of several botched executions — would not sufficiently anesthetize him from the painful effects of the other two drugs used in the protocol. His appeal also argued that the state's refusal to allow counsel witnessing his execution access to a cell or landline phone unconstitutionally restricted his access to the courts.
As part of his legal challenge, Alabama offered to execute Smith with a large dose of only midazolam — a lethal injection never before done. Smith consented, but only if the state greatly increased the dose and its three-drug method was declared unconstitutional. The two sides could not agree, and the state intends to use its three drug method of midazolam, followed by a paralytic and a painful drug that stops the heart.
Alabama has executed one inmate so far in 2016. In that execution, one of the inmate's eyes were open during the lethal injection. The courts have halted the executions of two other Alabama inmates this year.
A month ago, the US Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to Tommy Arthur while the justices consider whether to hear either of his cases. Similar to Smith, one of Arthur's challenges relates to Alabama's death sentencing laws and the other to the state's method of execution. Chief Justice John Roberts granted a so-called "courtesy fifth" vote to allow for the stay of Arthur's execution. The court is scheduled to consider whether to take either of his cases on Friday.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/2ghqWfT
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