Supreme Court halts Alabama execution over pastor s presence in chamber
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The Supreme Court upheld a lower court s preliminary injunction preventing Willie Smith s execution unless his pastor was in the execution chamber with him. File Photo courtesy Alabama Department of Corrections
Feb. 12 (UPI) The U.S. Supreme Court halted a planned execution Thursday night for Alabama death row inmate Willie Smith over a dispute about having his pastor present when he s put to death.
Smith, 51, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson. He was convicted of robbing the 22-year-old woman and then killing her in a cemetery.
From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
Alabama
Montgomery: The state is preparing to execute an inmate by lethal injection in what would be Alabama’s first death sentence carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Willie B. Smith III, 51, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday at a south Alabama prison for the 1991 shotgun slaying of Sharma Ruth Johnson. U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. on Tuesday denied Smith’s lawyers’ request for a stay. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled the execution could go forward with precautions. Smith’s attorneys have sought a stay arguing that the pandemic and the prohibition on in-person prison visits had made it difficult for them to adequately represent him. They said Smith has been unable to receive the number of in-person visits from attorneys, friends and a pastor that death row inmates normally do before their date in the execution chamber. Attorneys also argued the execution would be a super-spreader event. Some COVID-19 cases have
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An appellate court has stayed the lethal injection of an Alabama inmate to consider claims that the state failed to give the man, who has an