Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 3.20.24The Attorney General has asked for execution dates for Jamie Mills and Keith Gavin by lethal injection. We will keep you posted once a date has been set. The Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office also asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller. The state said Miller’s execution would be carried out using nitrogen. This is the second execution date as Mr. Miller survived a botched and very painful execution attempt. Now the state plans to use nitrogen hypoxia which to quote a lawsuit "The results of the first human experiment are now in and they demonstrate that nitrogen gas asphyxiation is neither quick nor painless, but agonizing and painful.”
Please join us tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. on the steps of the capitol in Montgomery for a demonstration organized by Amnesty International and the ACLU of Alabama as we tell the AL House Judiciary Committee to pass Rep. Chris England’s HB 27 which completes the restoration of a right to a jury trial which began in 2017 with the end of judicial override. We will also be presenting petitions asking the Governor to grant clemency to Rocky Myers.
We thank Deanna Smith, Kenny’s wife for the following heartbreaking statement: “What I saw not what was presented to us in court proceedings. We were told Kenny would be unconscious within seconds and dead within minutes. This was very much not the case. I watched as his body jerked and convulsed against the straps of the gurney. I watched as his eyes rolled back and still remember the look of the whites of his eyes. When I would think it was almost done, his body would try to gasp for any air it could possibly get. I watched his body be weaponized against him. I was watching the clock, begging God for it to end, but it just wouldn’t stop. It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life and it haunts me.”
In the Alabama Reflector Alabama legislator seeks to eliminate nitrogen gas executions “A group of lawmakers have filed legislation that would end executions by nitrogen gas as Alabama grapples with criticism stemming from the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith in January. HB 248, sponsored by Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, strikes language in the state’s capital punishment statute that makes any reference to nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution.”
Reason Magazine: Alabama Discovers There Is No 'Humane' Way To Execute Someone “Instead of searching for gentle execution methods, states should just stop killing prisoners.” And Alabama will find that this issue will not go away!
Great news! 50 issues of On Wings of Hope are now published to the American Prison Newspapers collection on JSTOR. Here is the link:
https://www.jstor.org/site/reveal-digital/american-prison-newspapers/onwingsofhope-35649887/ Thank you to all who made this happen, Advisory Board Member Dr, Katie Owens-Murphy and Development Officer Brandon Fountain.
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. Stay safe and be kind to each other! Esther
