The path to execution in Alabama
Steps that Alabama takes with death row inmates.
If all of Alabama’s scheduled executions go forward, it will mean the state will have executed six men this year, tying the totals for 2009 and 2010 for most executions during a one-year period, figures from the Alabama Department of Corrections and data compiled by anti-death penalty groups show.
That includes a state plan to end 2024 with back-to-back-to-back executions during September, October and November, beginning with the state’s second nitrogen hypoxia execution on Sept. 26. State officials contacted by the Montgomery Advertiser would not rule out more executions, even with little time left in the year.
Who decides execution dates?
The march to execution in Alabama begins when the attorney general decides which inmate will be executed. The Alabama Supreme Court then authorizes that execution and the governor’s office sets the date. The execution date must be at least 30 days after the condemned inmate is informed that their execution is pending.
Executions are conducted in the death chamber of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, which also houses the male death row. Other male death row inmates are housed at the William C. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer. Female death row, which has five inmates is at Julia C. Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka. All five female inmates were sentenced to death for their involvement in the deaths of their children, court records and ADOC data show.
The Montgomery Advertiser emailed questions to the press offices for Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall relating to the number of executions planned for this year.
The questions were:
What is her/his comment on Alabama planning to conduct six executions this year?Are six executions the maximum to be set for a one-year period, or could we see a higher number of executions set in the future?
“In carrying out a death sentence imposed by a jury, there is a specific process followed,” Gina Maiola, Ivey’s press secretary answered by email. “After the attorney general asks the Supreme Court for approval to proceed, the governor then has the duty of setting the timeframe for the execution. Governor Ivey will continue seeking to uphold the law and secure justice for the victims of these heinous crimes.”
Marshall’s office did not answer the questions, after being given a time period from Sept. 4 to Sept. 10 to do so.
In 1976, the United States Supreme Court ruled executions could once again be conducted. Alabama waited seven years after that ban was lifted before the first inmate was executed in 1983. Since 1976, there have been 19 years when no one was executed in Alabama, with the latest year being 2015.
Recently, Alabama has been described as being “an outlier” in executions by the Equal Justice Initiative, a prisoner advocacy nonprofit headquartered in Montgomery. Alabama “consistently has one of the nation’s highest per capita execution rates. With 75 executions and nine exonerations since 1976, Alabama has a shocking error rate: for every eight people executed, one has been exonerated,” an EJI annual report on the death penalty in America states.
More: Nitrogen gas execution: Kenneth Smith convulses for four minutes in Alabama death chamber
What types of executions are legal?
In Alabama, condemned prisoners chose their method of execution, with the options being electrocution, lethal injection and nitrogen gas hypoxia. Alabama is the only state in the nation to have executed a person by nitrogen gas hypoxia.
Once a prisoner chooses a method of execution, they cannot change that method. That includes those who chose nitrogen hypoxia before the method was used for the first time earlier this year.
Alabama inmates who have been executed in 2024, or whose executions are scheduled:
Kenneth Eugene Smith, by nitrogen gas hypoxia, Jan. 25.Jamie R. Mills, by lethal injection, May 30.Keith Edmund Gavin, by lethal injection, July 18.Alan Eugene Miller, by nitrogen gas hypoxia, Sept. 26.Derrick Ryan Dearman, by lethal injection, Oct. 17.Carey Dale Grayson, by nitrogen gas hypoxia, Nov. 21.Where does Alabama rank among states with the most executions?
Nationally, Texas leads the country in numbers of executions since the ban was lifted with 589. Alabama is sixth on the list of executions during that timeframe with 75, according to information from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C.
As of Sept. 3, Alabama has conducted three executions this year with three pending. Texas has conducted three executions with five pending and three executions having active death warrant.
Missouri has conducted two executions with two executions having active death warrants. Oklahoma has conducted two executions with 13 pending and one execution having an active death warrant. Florida has conducted one execution with one death warrant active, and Georgia and Utah have each conducted one executions with no death warrants active.
Through Sept. 3 for 2024 there have been 46 executions scheduled in 10 states, with 13 executions having been carried out. There are 10 death warrants active and 23 death warrants inactive. Capital punishment is legal in 27 states, and can also be conducted by the the U.S. government and U.S. military.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 22:04:00
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