MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is set Thursday to carry out what would be the first execution by a state in 2021, that of a 51-year-old inmate convicted of the shotgun slaying of a police detective’s sister decades ago.
Willie B. Smith III is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson in Birmingham. Prosecutors said Smith abducted Johnson at gunpoint from an ATM, stole $80 from her and then took her to a cemetery where he shot her in the back of the head.
If the execution goes forward, it would be the first by a state in 2021 and one of the few at the state level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, no state has had an execution since last July 8.
A jury convicted Smith in 1992 in the death of Johnson, the sister of a Birmingham police detective.
Appellate courts rejected Smith’s claims on appeal, including that his lawyers provided ineffective assistance at trial and that he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled. Court records indicate a defense team expert estimated his IQ at 64 while a prosecution expert placed it at 72.
Last-minute court filings in the case have centered on concerns about the coronavirus outbreak and also on Smith’s request to have his personal pastor present in the chamber for the execution.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a district judge and said Smith should be allowed to have his pastor in the chamber.
“Mr. Smith pled that he believes that the point of transition between life and death is important, and that having his spiritual advisor physically present at that moment is integral to his faith,” Smith’s lawyers wrote in court documents.
It is anticipated that the state will appeal the ruling.
In the past, Alabama had routinely placed a prison chaplain in the chamber who would pray with an inmate if requested. The state stopped that practice after Muslim inmates asked to have an imam present. The prison system said it would not allow non-prison staff in the chamber and ended the practice of having the prison chaplain present. The change undercut claims of unequal treatment between inmates of different faiths.
Smith’s attorneys also had sought a stay by arguing that the ongoing pandemic and the prohibition on in-person prison visits had made it difficult for the defense team to adequately represent him. Attorneys also argued that an execution would be a super-spreader event.
Some COVID-19 cases have been linked to recent federal executions.
The Alabama attorney general’s office wrote in court filings that the state is no longer under a stay-at-home order and said carrying out executions is one of the functions of state government.
“The State is open, and its agencies are expected to function. One of the State’s functions is to ensure that justice is carried out in a timely fashion by performing executions of those inmates on death row who have exhausted their appeals,” the Alabama attorney general’s office wrote.
The Department of Corrections has changed some procedures in the face of the pandemic. The prison system is limiting media witnesses to the execution to one journalist, a representative from The Associated Press.
