[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----ALABAMA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 22



ALABAMA----impending execution

11th Circuit denies stay for Alabama inmate facing execution


A federal appeals court Friday denied a stay of execution for 65-year-old
Tommy Arthur, who faces lethal injection on Thursday in the
murder-for-hire shooting death of a Muscle Shoals man.

Arthur's attorneys had asked the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals to delay the execution at Holman prison near Atmore until civil
suits challenging use of lethal injection and another seeking DNA evidence
could go to trial.

Arthur was sentenced to die for the Feb. 1, 1982, killing of 35-year-old
Troy Wicker, who was shot in the right eye as he lay in bed in his Muscle
Shoals home. At the time of his arrest, Arthur was serving a sentence for
an unrelated murder and assigned to a prison work release center.

A 3-judge panel of the 11th Circuit on Monday rejected the lethal
injection challenge, and on Friday the panel upheld the lower court's
order dismissing Arthur's bid for DNA testing of evidence from his trial.

"There was no justification for Arthur's failure to bring his request for
physical evidence for DNA testing earlier to allow sufficient time for
full adjudication on the merits of this claim," the order stated.

Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw, the state's capital litigation
chief, said the 11th Circuit's order is "pretty specific that any testing
results wouldn't exonerate Arthur."

State prosecutors had argued that Arthur was unable to show that DNA
testing of evidence would clear him.

Arthur's attorney disagreed.

"That's a dispute between the lawyers as to what the evidence will show.
Reliable science can settle this dispute," said Suhana S. Han, a New York
attorney representing Arthur.

She said Friday she was still analyzing the 11th Circuit's decision, but
expects to file a U.S. Supreme Court appeal.

State prosecutors say Arthur exhausted state and federal appeals of his
conviction when the U.S. Supreme Court denied a review on April 16.

On Thursday, Gov. Bob Riley's spokesman, Jeff Emerson, said the governor
had no current plans to block Arthur's execution despite appeals from
Arthur's supporters, including the New York-based Innocence Project and
the anti-death penalty Amnesty International USA.

Arthur's first 2 convictions and death sentences in the Wicker murder were
overturned on appeal. But Arthur has been on death row at Holman prison
near Atmore about 16 years after being convicted for capital murder and
sentenced to death in 1992 at his 3rd trial.

Judy Wicker, now 60, testified that she began a sexual relationship with
Arthur after he committed to killing her husband and that she paid him
$10,000 for the slaying. She initially said an intruder, not Arthur,
killed her husband. She was given a life sentence for her part in the
murder and paroled after 10 years behind bars.

Han contended Wicker changed her story to protect her parole chances and
that DNA testing of evidence collected from her could prove that her
initial story about being raped is true.

But the lower court concluded that there was no basis in the record for
Arthur's belief that the blood on Judy Wicker's clothing belonged to her
assailant, Arthur or to anyone other than Judy Wicker, who was injured in
a struggle.

Arthur's attorneys had sought DNA testing of the rape kit, among other
evidence. But the lower court ruled that Arthur did not offer any reason
to believe that testing the rape kit would help show that he was more
likely than not actually innocent.

(source: Associated Press)