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#Post#: 181--------------------------------------------------
~ Ronald Smith, Jr., 08Dec16, (AL) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: October 10, 2016, 5:45 pm
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Alabama Sets Execution of Ronald Smith, Jr--
September 15, 2016
[IMG]
HTML http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z96/BuzzC/Misc/00Z5861.jpg[/img]
The Alabama Supreme Court on Wednesday set an execution date of
December 8th, 2016 for Ronald Smith, Jr.
Smith was convicted in the 1994 murder of Casey Wilson, a
convenience store clerk, during a robbery. The jury had
recommended a life sentence without parole for Smith, but a
judge overrode the decision and imposed the death penalty as is
allowed under the state’s death sentencing law.
That law is similar to the one in Florida that was struck down
by the U.S. Supreme Court this year due to the significant role
it gives to judges in the sentencing process. In the Florida
case decision, the Supreme Court held, at the least, that a 2002
decision of the court ordering that juries must determine any
fact that can lead to a defendant being eligible for the death
penalty, applies to Florida’s law.
The Supreme Court has since ordered the Alabama state courts to
reexamine several cases brought by death row inmates there who
say Alabama’s system is similarly unconstitutional. Those
appeals, however, come out of convictions that were reached in
state courts after the 2002 Supreme Court decision — which the
Supreme Court has previously ruled is not retroactive to earlier
sentences.
#Post#: 195--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Ronald Smith, Jr., 08Dec16, (AL) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: December 11, 2016, 4:26 am
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Alabama Inmate Ronald Bert Smith Jr. Executed For 1994 Murder Of
Store Clerk--
December 9, 2016
A state prison in Alabama executed an inmate Thursday night
convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in 1994. The
execution was put on hold twice due to U.S. Supreme Court stay
orders, which were eventually lifted.
The inmate Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was given lethal injection
at the prison in southwest Alabama and was declared dead at
11:05 p.m. local time (12:05 a.m. EST), some 30 minutes after
the three-drug lethal dose was given, the Associated Press (AP)
reported.
Smith was found guilty of capital murder in the November 1994
fatal shooting of Casey Wilson, a store clerk in Huntsville. He
was initially recommended life imprisonment by jury who voted
7-5. But Judge Lynwood Smith quashed the recommendation and
handed him a death sentence. He had likened Wilson’s killing to
an execution and said the store clerk was beaten into
submission, and then shot in the head leaving an infant
fatherless.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices ordered stay on the execution
twice after Smith’s attorneys argued that the judge should not
have been able to override the jury’s recommendation. Alabama
law allows a judge to supersede jury’s recommendation. In order
to halt the execution, five liberal justices were required to
vote in favor of the stay but only four agreed, according to
Albuquerque Journal.
“The trial court described Smith’s acts as ‘an execution style
slaying.’ Tonight, justice was finally served,” Alabama Attorney
General Luther Strange said in a statement after the execution.
Smith, who became an Eagle Scout at the age of 15, was a son of
a NASA contract employee. His life spiraled downward due to
alcoholism, according to a clemency request to Alabama’s
governor, cited by the Journal. Smith’s final meal involved
fried chicken and French fries. His parents and son had visited
him before he was put to death.
The inmate had undergone two consciousness tests after he was
given the final two of three lethal drugs. Smith moved his arm
during the first test and slightly raised his right arm again
after the second test, according to the AP. He heaved and
coughed 13 minutes into the procedure, the report said, adding
that the movements were likely to be debated. However, the state
prison commissioner said he did not see any reaction to the
tests.
“We do know we followed our protocol. We are absolutely
convinced of that,” Alabama Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn
said Thursday, according to the AP. “There will be an autopsy
that will be done on Mr. Smith and if there were any
irregularities those will hopefully be shown or born out in the
autopsy.”
Smith was the 20th person executed in the U.S. this year and the
second in Alabama.
HTML http://www.ibtimes.com/alabama-inmate-ronald-bert-smith-jr-executed-1994-murder-store-clerk-2457746
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