Alabama Executes Jamie Mills

The basics of the matter: 

Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple’s home where he beat the couple and stole money and medications. 

Floyd Hill, 87, died from blunt and sharp-force wounds to his head and neck, and Vera Mills, 72, died from complications of head trauma 12 weeks after the crime, the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing. 

Mills’ attorneys wrote in a March petition to a Marion County judge that prosecutors concealed that they had a plea deal with Mills’ wife that spared her from a possible death sentence. She was the key prosecution witness against Mills at his trial. 

The attorney general’s office disputed that there was a pretrial agreement.

It was a horrible and depressing crime. Jamie Mills was broke and a drug addict. They robbed and murdered an elderly couple for what amounted to about $140 in goods. Executing Mills as compared to various other people who murdered people in similar crimes is of limited value.

Mills argues the testimony of his common-law wife was essential to the state's case. His lawyers offer another theory that a known local drug dealer, Benjie Howe, was guilty and that the evidence can be interpreted that way. Howe was arrested with the duo. Nonethless, the lack of evidence led the state to drop the charges. 

The state denies wrongdoing and that by now it's much too late to make the claim. The lawyers also have other longshot arguments including the dangers of lethal injection (the Supreme Court clearly doesn't care) and the right of his lawyer to be in the death chamber. 

His wait of over fifteen years (somewhat medium range in comparison to other cases) might in some other nations also be a reasonable argument (Breyer's dissent). Not here. Likewise, no surprise, that his final appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected without comment. I don't even think the decision is necessarily wrong. "No comment" is.  

Past practice has shown Alabama should not be trusted with the actual practice of executing people. The coerced testimony argument seems weak (especially based on precedent) but might be credible. But, the bottom line is that this is overall a bad use of execution. It was a horrible crime and such a waste but not "worse of the worst" or a good policy.

One juror agreed. The final vote to execute was 11-1. The law of the time allowed a non-unanimous judgment. The eleven won out in the end. Three executions are scheduled for June.