Alabama set to execute death row inmate Jamie Mills for elderly couple’s 2004 murders

Alabama is scheduled to execute death row inmate Jamie Ray Mills on Thursday, marking the state’s first execution since Kenneth Smith was sentenced to death using nitrogen hypoxia in January. Mills will be executed by lethal injection, which is the primary method of execution in Alabama, although condemned inmates can choose nitrogen gas as an alternative.

Mills was convicted of capital murder in the 2004 killing of an elderly couple in their northwest Alabama home. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey authorized a 30-hour window for his execution, between 12 a.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, although officials estimated it would begin around 6 p.m. local time Thursday, according to with the Alabama Department of Corrections.

A joint statement from Ivey and Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, released in early May, noted that plans for Mills’ execution could change, “based on the completion of necessary legal procedures.” If it occurs as scheduled, the execution will take place at the William C. Holman Correctional Center in Atmore.

An Alabama jury convicted Mills in 2007 of the murders of 87-year-old Floyd Hill and 72-year-old Vera Hill, an elderly couple who lived in Guin, near the Mississippi border, court documents show. Two other people were also found guilty in the case: JoAnn Mills, found to be Jamie Mills’ wife by common law standards during the trial; and Benjie Howe, described as a local drug dealer. In court documents, prosecutors said Jamie Mills and his wife planned to steal money and medicine from Hill after killing them. They described the murders as brutal executions, carried out with a “machete, tire tool and hammer.”

The Hills’ money and prescription medications were found in Howe’s possession when he was eventually arrested as a suspect, and the arrests of Jamie and JoAnn Mills came soon after, as authorities say they discovered the murder weapons in their trunk. your car. DNA taken from the tools matched one of the victims, but Mills’ lawyers argued in more recent years that there was little concrete evidence linking him to the crime. During the trial, testimony given by Mills’ wife helped support the prosecution’s case.

JoAnn Mills originally suggested to authorities that Howe had planted the murder weapons in the trunk of her and her husband’s car in an attempt to frame them for Hills’ murder, according to court documents. Ultimately, however, she became the prosecution’s star witness as they tried to convict Jamie Mills of the crimes. How and why this change happened later emerged as a source of controversy over whether Mills’ conviction and death penalty sentence were fair.

Trial transcripts show that during cross-examination, former Marion County District Attorney William Bostick said on the stand that JoAnn Mills was not encouraged to testify against her husband and accuse him of the murders. In at least one conversation, Jamie Mills’ defense attorney directly asked the prosecutor whether there was any “incentive” that could have encouraged his wife’s testimony, to which the prosecutor repeatedly said no. JoAnn Mills was eventually convicted of the Hills murders and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, with Alabama dismissing the capital murder charges against her.

It was later discovered that her lawyer at the time, Tony Glenn, had said in a sworn statement that he met with the district attorney and members of the Hills’ family to reach an agreement in which the state would not pursue the death penalty against her. whether she testified against her husband. As a result, Mills filed a motion last April asking the court to reopen his appeal and grant a stay of execution. He has always maintained his innocence in the Hills murders.

Eleventh Circuit Judge Nancy G. Abudu acknowledged in the court’s opinion this week: “According to Glenn, prior to the Mills trial, the victims’ daughter agreed not to oppose the State’s offer to JoAnn of a settlement court, and the district attorney has agreed not to pursue the death penalty against JoAnn – as long as she ‘testifies the truth’ at Mills’ trial.”

Abudu still ruled in favor of the State, denying Mills’ appeal and authorizing the execution to proceed. Mills filed a separate petition with the United States Supreme Court to review the decision and reconsider the suspension.

In his April appeal, Mills shared concerns about the execution itself, knowing that Alabama’s correctional system has gained some level of notoriety over the past half-decade or so for spoil the executions of death row inmates by lethal injection. Smith became the first convicted inmate in the United States sentenced to death by nitrogen hypoxia earlier this year after surviving a failed lethal injection attempt in 2022 in Alabama.

Abudu also addressed Mills’ concerns.

“Mills has a valid fear that he will be unnecessarily placed on the execution gurney if there is a stay, while the IV team is not attempting to establish IV access, or while officers are transporting witnesses to the observation area without receiving any updates. officials about the status of their cases or the ongoing execution protocol,” the judge wrote in the opinion. “In its filings with this Court, the State has assured us that should Mills receive a reprieve while on the execution gurney, he will be returned to a cell. The State also indicated that it has taken steps to accelerate its preparation process. to ensure witnesses are transported to the observation area early to limit delays.”