Dec. 8
ALABAMA----imminent execution
Execution of Alabama Death Row inmate Ronald Bert Smith set to proceed
The U.S. Supreme Court has yet again refused to stay Ronald Bert Smith's
execution. The execution is now set for 9:45 p.m.
As with the two stays denied by the high court earlier tonight, Smith's
attorneys again sought a reconsideration, this time in order to give them time
to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals denial on Thursday of their appeal on the challenge to the state's
three-drug method of execution.
That third request was denied, a spokesperson for the court confirmed.
Smith's attorneys had decided not to appeal on the drug issue but instead
appealed to SCOTUS over Alabama's law that allows judges to override jury
recommendations for life. The Alabama Supreme Court had denied the appeal on
the override issue.
Smith, a former Eagle Scout and Army reservist convicted in the 1994 slaying of
a Huntsville convenience store clerk, for the second time tonight has been
granted a temporary stay of execution by a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Smith, 45, was set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the Holman
Correctional Facility in Atmore. He was to be the second inmate executed this
year in Alabama.
The state in January executed Christopher Eugene Brooks, Alabama's first
execution since 2013.
Two other executions scheduled this year, those of Vernon Madison and Tommy
Arthur, were stayed earlier in 2016 by appeal courts.
Smith had been granted a temporary stay at 5:14 p.m. U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas issued the stay "pending further order of the court." The
Department of Corrections treated this as a temporary stay of the execution and
as of 6:30 p.m. Thursday had not cancelled it.
But, at 7:25 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court vacated Thomas' order and denied the
stay. "The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to
Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied. The order heretofore
entered by Justice Thomas is vacated." Four justices - Ginsburg, Breyer,
Sotomayor, and Kagan would grant the application for stay of execution but they
needed five to grant the stay.
The Department of Corrections then reset the execution at 8:15 p.m. tonight.
But then about 7:40 p.m. prisons spokesman Bob Horton announced that the
Attorney General's Office had been told that another U.S. Supreme Court Justice
has asked for another temporary stay.
That stay was granted by Thomas again "pending further order of the undersigned
or of the Court."
After the original stay was denied, Smith's attorneys requested a
reconsideration of the stay.
"The Court released an order earlier today from which it appears that four
Justices favor review of Mr. Smith's petition for writ of certiorari (review),
but he did not receive five votes to stay of Mr. Smith's impending execution,"
Smith's attorneys stated in their request for reconsideration of the denial.
"Because the Court's inconsistent practices respecting 5-4 stay denials in
capital cases clash with the appearance and reality both of equal justice under
law and of sound judicial decision-making, Mr. Smith asks this Court to
reconsider the Court's denial of his application for a stay of execution."
Alabama has until midnight tonight to execute Smith. Otherwise it would have to
go back to the Alabama Supreme Court and seek another execution date.
On Thursday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied his request for a
stay of execution That court also affirmed a district court's dismissal of
Smith's lawsuit challenging Alabama's three-drug lethal injection combination
as cruel and unusual punishment.
At the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for Smith are also seeking a stay of
execution. The lawyers also are appealing the dismissal by the Alabama Supreme
Court of Smith's claim that the state's death penalty sentencing law, which
allows judges to override jury sentencing recommendations, is unconstitutional.
In November the U.S. Supreme Court issued a similar stay in the Tommy Arthur
case. There were temporary stays issued before the execution was called off for
that night.
The Associated Press also reported that Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley had no
plans to stop the execution, a spokeswoman said Thursday evening. Smith's
attorneys had petitioned Bentley seeking to have his sentence commuted to life
in prison without the possibility of parole.
Bentley has never granted clemency to a death row inmate.
While waiting word from the U.S. Supreme Court Smith met with his mother,
father and son and four other visitors today.
Smith declined to eat breakfast but as his request for his last meal, which he
was offered at 2:34 p.m. and ate, was three pieces of chicken and fries,
Prisons Public Information Officer Bob Horton said.
A special last request was that he be allowed to take Holy Communion, which he
did at 3:30 p.m. Smith is Methodist.
If the execution were to be held tonight, it would be the first one for Holman
Warden Cynthia Stewart. And it would be the first Alabama execution
administered by a woman.
The warden at Holman, the place in Alabama where executions are conducted, is
charged with administering executions under Alabama law. Stewart took over as
warden this year.
Appeal claims
Smith was convicted in 1995 in the shooting death of Casey Wilson, a clerk at a
Circle C convenience store in Huntsville, on Nov. 8, 1994. The jury, in a 7-5
vote, recommended Smith be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
The judge, however, overrode the verdict and imposed the death sentence.
As part of Smith's challenge to the state's lethal injection method, U.S.
District Court Judge Keith Watkins at one point considered allowing Smith to be
executed with one large dose of Midazolam, a sedative that's the first drug in
the lethal injection combination. That method of execution has never before
been tried.
It was a suggestion Smith's lawyer's made and the Department of Corrections had
agreed. But Watkins later ended negotiations on that issue.
Smith claims that during the first execution using Alabama's new three-drug
protocol - on Jan. 21 - that one of inmate Christopher Brooks' eyes opened
during his execution. Smith claims that Brooks was sedated but not "insensate"
to the pain caused by the injection of the other two drugs.
That Attorney General's Office has stated that Smith presented absolutely no
medical evidence or testimony of any kind supporting such a conclusion. The
failure of the eyelids to properly close - called Lagophthalmos - "is a such a
common condition in surgeries in which patients undergo general anesthesia that
medical studies suggest that patients' eyelids be taped to reduce the chance of
corneal abrasion," the AG stated.
Efforts to reach Casey Wilson's family were unsuccessful prior to publication
of this story.
Wilson, 26 was the lone clerk during a robbery at the Circle C Store at
Memorial Parkway and Byrd Spring Road when he was shot to death on Nov. 8,
1994.
A native of Muleshoe, Texas, Wilson was an honors graduate from the University
of Eastern New Mexico. Wilson, his wife, Sharon, and their then-5-week-old son,
Jackie, were preparing to leave Huntsville for good on Dec. 15, 1994 because he
hadn't been able to find a job in his field, according to a story in The
Huntsville Times.
Wilson's degree was in computer information systems, but he worked at the a
convenience store because he could not find a job in his field in Huntsville,
Wilson's wife told The Times.
Wilson's wife, who holds a master's degree in computer science from Eastern New
Mexico University, said she and Wilson came to Huntsville in December 1993 so
she could work on an internship at Redstone Arsenal.
The internship was almost finished and they were preparing to move, she told
The Times.
Crime and trial
A prosecutor said Smith, Phillip Chad Roundtree, 18, and Jay Allen Zuercher,
18, stopped at the convenience store for cigarettes. Smith told the two teens
that he was going to rob the store because he had worked there awhile and he
was going to "pop" the guy inside.
Smith went into the store, got a soft drink from the cooler and placed it on
the counter, Taylor said. He then pulled a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol
from his pants and pointed it in Wilson's face, forcing him into the store's
restroom where he shot him. Wilson was pistol-whipped before he was shot in the
head, left arm and chest.
Smith went outside and got a 9mm pistol and entered the store again, according
to a prosecutor. He shot the lock off a cabinet where the security videotape
recorder was kept, he said.
Since 1812, Alabama has executed nearly 800 people.
No cash was taken from the store but the videotape recorder and a cassette tape
was missing. The videotape, later recovered by police, showed Smith entering
the store and walking to a drink cooler. He then approached Wilson with a
Mountain Dew soft drink and pointed a pistol at him.
Smith is then seen forcing Wilson back out of the view of the store's security
camera.
The tape then showed Zuercher enter the store appearing to hold something.
Zuercher quickly ducks while walking in a crouched position toward the store's
counter.
Smith later bragged about the killing to a group of people, one of whom later
recorded a conversation with Smith for police for the purchase of the 9mm gun.
Shell casings from that gun matched.
Smith also later confessed to police.
Smith told the jury and judge he was sorry for what he had done.
Smith's lawyer also argued that Smith was under the influence of alcohol and
angry during the crime and was not able to appreciate the criminality of his
conduct. They also argued he had no prior criminal history, other than a 1990
misdemeanor minor in possession of alcohol charge.
The judge disagreed with the jury's recommendation for life without parole,
saying Smith's "acts demonstrate a pitiless indifference to Casey Wilson's
fears, pains and suffering, and pleas for life. The most chilling and heinous
aspect of this crime is the defendant unquestionably enjoyed and reveled in his
vile acts."
Prosecutors portrayed Smith as a nobody who tried to prop himself up in front
of his friends by pretending to be a hit man when he killed Wilson.
Smith's attorneys argued that Smith never intended to rob the store. Smith was
overcome by jealousy, they said, because he thought Wilson was having an affair
with a woman who danced nude at the Fantasia Club. The dancer testified she
never had a romantic relationship with Smith and that she had never met Wilson.
Smith later would testify that he may have been wrong about seeing Wilson with
the dancer.
Stephen Cooper, in his post, points to an April 15 complaint filed by a federal
public defender representing death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith, who is now
scheduled to be executed Dec. 8.
Smith's background
Smith was a 23-year-old Army reservist at the time of the shooting. His life
until that point had some trauma according to Smith's recent appeal for
clemency to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley.
Smith was born Jan. 13, 1971 at Seoul Military Hospital. His father was a
Vietnam veteran. His parents adopted two Korean children. His mother became
abusive to the children, according to the clemency appeal. The family moved to
Huntsville in 1982.
ronald bert smith eagle scout.pngRonald Bert Smith awarded Eagle Scout
At age 15 Smith became an Eagle Scout He received numerous commendations from
local and national leaders, including President Ronald Reagan, Sen.Howell
Heflin, and Sen. Jeremiah Denton, according to the clemency request. Then
Huntsville Mayor Joe Davis wrote, "I am sure that you will continue your life
in a manner that will make our
country stronger because of your personal belief and your willingness to serve
to the best of your ability."
By the time Smith graduated from Grissom High School in 1989, he had an alcohol
addiction, according to the clemency request.
smith family.PNGRonald Bert Smith Jr., with his mother and father and son, in
photo taken in prison
Smith dropped out of the University of Alabama due to his drinking. But he came
back to Huntsville and earned his associates degree from Calhoun Community
College and joined the 326 Chemical Company in the Army Reserves.
Smith had a child with his girlfriend in June 1994, five months before the
slaying. Smith and his girlfriend broke up in August 1994.
Smith has turned his life around in prison, his attorneys stated in his
clemency request to Gov. Bentley.
"For more than 20 years, Ronald Smith Jr. has served the sentence chosen by his
jury, life in prison. He has done so with a remorseful and repentant heart,
endeavoring to make a positive difference in the lives of those closest to him,
including his family, correctional officers, and fellow inmates," according to
the clemency request.
"Armed with a renewed faith in Christ, Mr. Smith has shown that the abuse in
his past, whether child abuse or alcohol abuse, does not define him. Instead,
he has striven to be the leader and public servant so many recognized he had
the potential to be, even from prison."
(source: al.com)
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