Thomas Arthur, a death-row inmate in Alabama, was granted a last-minute reprieve by the State Supreme Court on Wednesday evening after another convict confessed to the murder for which Mr. Arthur was to be executed.
Mr. Arthur, 66, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at the state prison in Atmore, Ala., for the murder of his lover’s husband in 1982. He was paid $10,000 for killing the husband, Troy Wicker, 35, according to testimony from the woman who said she had hired him, Judy Wicker.
On Monday, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Alabama stepped forward with a handwritten affidavit claiming that he, and not Mr. Arthur, was responsible for the murder. The convict, Bobby Ray Gilbert, said in the affidavit that he shot Mr. Wicker in the face at the behest of Ms. Wicker, whom he said he had met in a nightclub.
Lawyers for Mr. Arthur, who was tried three times in the killing, used the new claims as the basis for the last-minute appeal. The first convictions were overturned on legal issues.
On Wednesday evening, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to stay the execution pending further court orders. The court did not announce a reason for the stay.
Mr. Arthur’s lawyers said in legal filings that the state now acknowledges it cannot find what the lawyers say could be a critical piece of evidence if subjected to DNA testing — a rape test performed on Ms. Wicker.
Mr. Gilbert, in his affidavit, said that he had intercourse with her on the day of the murder.
The Alabama attorney general’s office earlier had dismissed the new affidavit as “wholly without credibility,” pointing to Mr. Gilbert’s multiple convictions, and Ms. Wicker herself cast doubt on its veracity.
Mr. Gilbert is serving time for two murders, for assaulting an inmate “with the intent to commit murder,” and for escape.
In her sworn statement, Ms. Wicker, who served time in the killing, said that “none of Gilbert’s allegations are true. I do not know anyone named Bobby Gilbert.” She said that she had hired Mr. Arthur to kill her husband, and had watched him do so.
Troy King, the Alabama attorney general, said in a statement on Wednesday that he believed “the lady who paid Troy Wicker’s killer, and the 13 witnesses who corroborated her testimony. I choose to place my faith in the three juries who heard the evidence and unanimously concluded that Tommy Arthur committed this crime.”
One of Mr. Arthur’s lawyers, Suhana S. Han of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, said Wednesday that the state should not disregard Mr. Gilbert’s sworn affidavit.
“If he’s telling the truth,” Ms. Han said, “the State of Alabama is about to kill an innocent man.”
The state’s lawyers said that in a letter to the governor last week, Mr. Arthur had blamed someone else, Jack Wessup, for the killing, saying that Mr. Wessup had been paid $5,000 by Ms. Wicker. The lawyers said that Mr. Wessup’s name had never come up in the case.
Source: The New York Times
Mr. Arthur, 66, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at the state prison in Atmore, Ala., for the murder of his lover’s husband in 1982. He was paid $10,000 for killing the husband, Troy Wicker, 35, according to testimony from the woman who said she had hired him, Judy Wicker.
On Monday, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Alabama stepped forward with a handwritten affidavit claiming that he, and not Mr. Arthur, was responsible for the murder. The convict, Bobby Ray Gilbert, said in the affidavit that he shot Mr. Wicker in the face at the behest of Ms. Wicker, whom he said he had met in a nightclub.
Lawyers for Mr. Arthur, who was tried three times in the killing, used the new claims as the basis for the last-minute appeal. The first convictions were overturned on legal issues.
On Wednesday evening, the Alabama Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to stay the execution pending further court orders. The court did not announce a reason for the stay.
Mr. Arthur’s lawyers said in legal filings that the state now acknowledges it cannot find what the lawyers say could be a critical piece of evidence if subjected to DNA testing — a rape test performed on Ms. Wicker.
Mr. Gilbert, in his affidavit, said that he had intercourse with her on the day of the murder.
The Alabama attorney general’s office earlier had dismissed the new affidavit as “wholly without credibility,” pointing to Mr. Gilbert’s multiple convictions, and Ms. Wicker herself cast doubt on its veracity.
Mr. Gilbert is serving time for two murders, for assaulting an inmate “with the intent to commit murder,” and for escape.
In her sworn statement, Ms. Wicker, who served time in the killing, said that “none of Gilbert’s allegations are true. I do not know anyone named Bobby Gilbert.” She said that she had hired Mr. Arthur to kill her husband, and had watched him do so.
Troy King, the Alabama attorney general, said in a statement on Wednesday that he believed “the lady who paid Troy Wicker’s killer, and the 13 witnesses who corroborated her testimony. I choose to place my faith in the three juries who heard the evidence and unanimously concluded that Tommy Arthur committed this crime.”
One of Mr. Arthur’s lawyers, Suhana S. Han of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, said Wednesday that the state should not disregard Mr. Gilbert’s sworn affidavit.
“If he’s telling the truth,” Ms. Han said, “the State of Alabama is about to kill an innocent man.”
The state’s lawyers said that in a letter to the governor last week, Mr. Arthur had blamed someone else, Jack Wessup, for the killing, saying that Mr. Wessup had been paid $5,000 by Ms. Wicker. The lawyers said that Mr. Wessup’s name had never come up in the case.
Source: The New York Times
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