The Appeal reported that Woods’ attorneys argued in an appeal that police had threatened her with parole violations if she refused to testify against him. “I told y’all what you wanted to hear,” she said. However, McClure later told a pretrial hearing that she “made that up,” according to a 2003 AP report. He wrote, “Although Woods was not the shooter, he was hardly an innocent bystander.” He cited the testimony of Marquita McClure, Woods’ girlfriend at the time, who told detectives that she had heard Woods and Spencer talking about killing police before the shootings. No more movement was seen after that and Woods was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m.Īlabama Attorney General Steve Marshall urged Ivey not to be persuaded by Woods’ supporters. consciousness check, his left arms jerked up against the restraint. He moved his arms against the restraints. as the lethal chemicals proceeded to flow. His fists were clenched, while his right-hand index finger was stuck out in an apparent sign of his Islamic faith.” At 8:40 p.m., Woods sat back up and began mouthing words. As the warden left the room, Woods laid his head down. local time, the News wrote, “Woods sat up on the gurney and stared straight ahead to one of the three viewing rooms. After the curtains to the viewing room opened at 8:37 p.m. Holman Correctional Facility’s execution chamber in Atmore on Thursday. The Birmingham News reported on the grisly scene at William C. The US Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of execution Thursday night but lifted it before Woods’ execution warrant expired, allowing it to proceed. Governor Ivey, a Republican, declined to commute his sentence. Woods’ conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court. Woods’ sister, Pamela Woods, told Newsweek that her brother’s impending execution was “a modern day lynching.” More than 75,000 opponents of the execution signed petitions to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to stop it. Simpson and Kim Kardashian, protested the execution. Numerous public figures and celebrities, including Martin Luther King III, O.J. However, Collins later changed his testimony from earlier statements to include a claim that Woods had threatened the officers before they were killed. Just don’t spray me with that mace,” before Spencer started shooting. Michael Collins, another officer at the scene that day, testified at trial that Woods had come out of the house with his hands up and said to the police: “I give up. Spencer, is on death row awaiting execution and has since said that Woods is “100 percent innocent.” By witness accounts, Woods actually ran from the cops who were in the process of arresting him and taking him into custody for an outstanding misdemeanor warrant at a drug house in Birmingham. This reality was never disputed by the prosecution in Woods case. In Woods’ case, the injustice of the ultimate punishment is compounded by the fact that he did not pull the trigger that ended the lives of officers Carlos Owen, Harley A. The death penalty is horrific in its own right, a barbarous practice rooted in vengeance and retribution that has nothing to do with rehabilitation, has been proven not to deter crime and does not provide “closure” to the victims of crime. Woods was sentenced to death for the 2004 killings despite the fact that he did not fire any shots on what has come to be known as the “Deadliest Day” in the Birmingham Police Department’s history.Ĭapital punishment, which is banned in the vast majority of the modern industrialized world, is still legal in 29 of 50 US states, the US federal government and the US military. His execution came nearly 16 years after three Birmingham police officers were shot and killed. The state of Alabama executed Nathaniel Woods, 44, Thursday evening.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |