On Thursday, Alabama executed death row convict Jamie Ray Mills, marking the state’s first execution since Kenneth Smith’s nitrogen hypoxia execution in January.
At 6:26 p.m. local time, the state Department of Corrections pronounced Mills, 50, dead at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southwest Alabama, following a three-drug injection. Alabama’s default method of execution is lethal injection, unless an inmate wants nitrogen gas or the electric chair to carry out the death sentence.
Related posts
In 2004, an elderly couple at their home in northwest Alabama found Mills guilty of capital murder. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey had approved his execution to take place between 12 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, but officials projected that it would start around 6 p.m. local time Thursday, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
“On May 29, 2024, Mills had 6 visitors and 6 phone calls,” according to the department’s statement. “On May 30, 2024, he had 6 visitors, nocphone calls, accepted his breakfast tray, and had a final meal of seafood.”
A joint statement from Ivey and Corrections Commissioner John Hamm made earlier in May stated that preparations for Mills’ execution could change “based on the conclusion of the required legal proceedings.”
An Alabama jury found Mills guilty in 2007 of killing Floyd Hill, 87, and Vera Hill, 72, an elderly couple living in Guin, near the Mississippi border, according to court documents. The trial also resulted in the conviction of JoAnn Mills, Jamie Mills’ wife, under common law, and Benjie Howe, a local drug dealer. According to court documents, Jamie Mills and his wife planned to steal money and prescription medications from the Hills after their deaths. They described the murders as savage executions with “a machete, tire tool, and ball-peen hammer.”
Officials say they discovered the murder weapons in the trunk of Jamie and JoAnn Mills’ car when they apprehended Howe as a suspect, finding him in possession of the Hills’ money and prescription medicines. Although DNA extracted from the tools matched one of the victims, Mills’ attorneys have contended in recent years that there was little more substantial evidence linking him to the crime. During the trial, Mills’ wife’s evidence helped to underpin the prosecution’s case.
According to court documents, JoAnn Mills first told authorities that Howe had hidden the murder weapons in the trunk of her and her husband’s car in an attempt to frame them for the Hills’ deaths. Eventually, however, she became the prosecution’s crucial witness as they attempted to convict Jamie Mills of the crimes. Later, the how and why of that change became a point of contention in the debate over whether Mills’ conviction and death sentence were just.
Trial transcripts reveal that former Marion County District Attorney William Bostick asserted during his testimony that JoAnn Mills received no inducement to testify against her husband and accuse him of the killings. In at least one interaction, Jamie Mills’ defense lawyer questioned the prosecution directly if there was any “inducement” that could have influenced his wife’s testimony, to which the district attorney repeatedly responded no. Later, the prosecution found JoAnn Mills guilty of the Hills’ murders, sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of release, and Alabama dropped the capital murder charges against her.
Tony Glenn, her lawyer at the time, revealed in a sworn declaration that he met with the district attorney and the Hills’ family members to negotiate a deal where the state agreed not to pursue the death penalty against her if she testified against her husband. As a result, Mills filed a motion in April requesting the court reconsider his appeal and issue a stay of execution. He consistently claimed innocence in the Hills murders.
In the court’s opinion this week, Eleventh Circuit Judge Nancy G. Abudu acknowledged, “According to Glenn, before Mills’ trial, the victims’ daughter agreed not to oppose the state offering JoAnn a plea deal, and the district attorney agreed not to pursue the death penalty against JoAnn—so long as she ‘testified truthfully’ at Mills’ trial.”
Abudu nonetheless decided in favor of the state, refusing Mills’ appeal and allowing the execution to proceed. Mills filed a separate petition with the United States Supreme Court to review the ruling and reconsider the stay.
In his April appeal, Mills expressed reservations about the execution itself, noting that Alabama’s jail system has gained some notoriety over the prior half-decade or so for botching lethal injections of death row convicts. Earlier this year, Smith, who had survived a botched lethal injection attempt in Alabama in 2022, became the first convicted inmate in the United States to undergo nitrogen hypoxia execution.
Abudu also responded to Mills’ concerns.
“Mills has a valid fear that he will be unnecessarily placed on the execution gurney if a stay is in place, while the IV team is not attempting to establish IV access, or while officials transport witnesses to the viewing area, without being given any updates from officials on the status of his cases or the ongoing execution protocol,” the judge wrote in his opinion. “The State informed us in its submissions to this Court that granting a stay while Mills is on the execution gurney would result in his return to a holding cell.” The state asserted that it has accelerated its preparation process to guarantee the prompt transfer of witnesses to the viewing area, thereby preventing any delays.
