Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 11.1.23

The State of Alabama has set 11.16.23 as the execution date for Casey McWhorter. The Talking Points are at https://www.phadp.org/execution-alert-casey-mcwhorter/  on our website.  Please: Take action to spare Casey's life at bit.ly/CaseyMcWhorter and write to the Governor as well!

Last week in "The Casey McWhorter Tapes" “Blank Slate” “Home” “Simple” “READY” were added to Systematic Theology from Death Row. And now the Casey McWhorter Tapes have been published and you can download a copy at https://drive.google.com/.../17TH7Y9qkNE59cO9KIvB9y8.../view or order a print copy at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLS78S8S . The Casey McWhorter Tapes are a message of hope and new beginnings!  Our thanks to Casey and Casey’s spiritual advisor the Rev. Jeff Hood!

Casey gave an interview: “Alabama death row inmate reflects on life two weeks ahead of execution” https://www.cnhinews.com/alabama/article_536ebea4-79d5-11ee-b364-e346cc68b49c.html .

On Sunday Death Penalty Action held its monthly zoom call “THE FORECAST: Upcoming Executions in the United States.” We heard from Casey’s spiritual advisor and were honored to participate.

From our friends at Death Penalty Action:” #CaseyMcWhorter has a birthday coming up this Saturday, 11/11, just 5 days before the State of Alabama intends to put him to death. Join us in sending birthday greetings to Casey to lift his spirits. If you are unfamiliar with Securus, you are welcome to email your birthday greetings to us. Thank you!” [email protected]

The Alabama Supreme Court justices voted 6-2 to grant the state’s request, with one justice recusing, to execute Kenneth Smith in the gas chamber. The order, issued Wednesday, does not set a date, but says that Gov. Kay Ivey is to schedule a timeframe in not less than 30 days. Robert Grass, an attorney for Smith, said Thursday that his defense team is disappointed in the decision and will continue to fight in court.“We remain hopeful that those who review this case will see that a second attempt to execute Mr. Smith — this time with an experimental, never-before-used method and with a protocol that has never been fully disclosed to him or his counsel — is unwarranted and unjust,” Grass wrote.

We recommend Mike Cason’s “Death with a gas mask. Court ruling moves Alabama closer to using untried execution method” and Patrick Darrington’s “Alabama to allow first execution using nitrogen hypoxia”.

We thank all who are working so hard and diligently to stop all killing in Alabama! And as always in closing, we thank all our generous donors who either gave by going to our website and using the “donate” button or who gave directly. Thank you also to all who took the time to read our notes, commented, liked and shared them on Facebook. And if you would like to order our book “Ghosts Over the Boiler” you can do so at Amazon.com. Stay well and be kind to each other!

                                                                 Esther