Alabama poised to execute man for three murders he didn’t commit

Nathaniel Woods did not fire the shots that killed three police officers, but in Alabama being an accomplice to a murder can also result in a death sentence

On Thursday evening, the state of Alabama is scheduled to execute a man for capital murder in a case in which even prosecutors acknowledge that he did not kill the three victims.

A group led by family members is asking the governor for an eleventh hour stay of execution.

In 2005, condemned inmate Nathaniel Woods was found guilty for his role in the 2004 deaths of three police officers in Birmingham, Alabama, and the attempted murder of a fourth. Another man, Kerry Spencer, was also convicted of the crime and is also on death row.

Mr Woods, prosecutors say, drew the four officers to an apartment where he and Spencer sold crack cocaine. It was there that Spencer, not Woods, shot the officers.

Officers Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm III and Charles Bennett were killed, and officer Michael Collins was wounded.

In Alabama, being an accomplice in a murder can also result in a death sentence.

On Wednesday, Mr Woods’ father and sister came to the state Capitol in Montgomery to proclaim his innocence.

AL.com reports that they were joined by Molly Cole, an advocate for Mr Woods, who delivered letters to Governor Kay Ivey’s office asking to halt the execution.

Speaking outside the Capitol, Pamela Woods said: “We really just want people to see that he really is innocent, that he didn’t have anything to do with the murders of those officers.”

“We do feel really bad for what happened that day. We don’t wish that on anyone, for their family to have to deal with that. It was very unfortunate that the shooter did what he did. But the main point is, is that Nathaniel had no parts in those actions of another man, Kerry Spencer.”

Adding his voice to calls for a reprieve is Martin Luther King III, who has written a letter to Governor Ivey after a request to speak with her was denied.

He said: “Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice. Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed?”

He added that information has been brought forward which has yet to be accurately reviewed and considered and that Mr Woods did not have a fair trial. It has been argued that Mr Woods was not adequately represented. In addition, Spencer admitted to shooting the officers, but the presiding judge would not allow the assertion at trial that he said it was in self-defence because they were assaulting Mr Woods.

Upon his conviction, two jurors voted against applying the death penalty to Mr Woods’ conviction, but their objection was not enough as Alabama is unique in not requiring a unanimous verdict for a death sentence.

The governor is yet to respond to the family nor Mr King, but Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement concerning the calls to halt the execution.

Said Mr Marshall: “There is a last-minute movement afoot to ‘save’ cop-killer Nathaniel Woods from his just punishment. The message of that movement is encapsulated by the headline of a press release sent out today, which declared: ‘Surrendered and Innocent Man Set to Die.’ That headline contains two falsehoods and one truth. The falsehoods are the descriptors ‘surrendered’ and ‘innocent’: neither apply whatsoever to Nathaniel Woods, whose actions directly caused the deaths of three policemen and injury to another.”

He continues: “The truth is ‘set to die’: Nathaniel Woods was correctly found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of his peers, and that sentence is set to be carried out tomorrow; that is, justice is set to be carried out tomorrow. The only injustice in the case of Nathaniel Woods is that which was inflicted on those four policemen that terrible day in 2004.”

On Monday a stay of execution was denied by US District Judge Emily Marks.

Mr Woods is set to die at 6pm on Thursday by lethal injection. He is the first person scheduled for execution in Alabama this year, and the 67th since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.