As reported in this AP piece, an “Alabama man received a lethal injection Thursday for the killing of an elderly couple in 2004, the first inmate put to death by the state since it became the first in the nation to execute an inmate using nitrogen gas months ago.” Here is more:
Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. after a three-drug injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Faciilty in southwest Alabama, authorities said. Lethal injection remains Alabama’s default method of execution unless an inmate requests nitrogen gas or the electric chair to carry out the death sentence.
Mills was convicted of capital murder at trial in the killings of Floyd Hill, 87, and his wife Vera, 72. Prosecutors said the victims were attacked with a hammer, machete and a tire tool at their home in a small community about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to block Thursday’s execution. Attorneys for Mills, who maintained his innocence at his 2007 trial, had argued that newly obtained evidence showed the prosecution lied about having a plea agreement with Mills’ wife to spare her from seeking the death penalty against her if she testified against her husband. They also argued Alabama has a history of problematic executions.