MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday commuted the loss of life sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in jail, saying there have been sufficient questions on his guilt that she couldn’t transfer ahead together with his execution.
Ivey stated Myers, 63, will spend the remainder of his life in jail with out the opportunity of parole as a substitute of being executed later this 12 months. She famous that was the sentence jurors at his 1994 trial had advisable. The Republican governor stated she is a staunch supporter of the loss of life penalty however “I’ve sufficient questions on Mr. Myers’ guilt that I can not transfer ahead with executing him.”
“In brief, I’m not satisfied that Mr. Myers is harmless, however I’m not so satisfied of his guilt as to approve of his execution. I due to this fact should respect each the jury’s determination to convict him and its suggestion that he be sentenced to life with out parole,” Ivey stated in an announcement.
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Myers was convicted of capital homicide within the 1991 stabbing of Ludie Mae Tucker, 69, at her Decatur dwelling. Myers, who lived throughout the road from Tucker, had lengthy maintained he was harmless. A juror at his 1994 trial supported the push for clemency.
Final week, the Alabama Supreme Courtroom granted the state lawyer basic’s request to authorize an execution date for Myers utilizing nitrogen gasoline. The following step was for Ivey to set that date.
It was the primary execution Ivey has stopped since she first took workplace in 2017. Ivey, who has presided over greater than 20 executions, referred to as it “one of the tough selections I’ve needed to make as governor.”
“However I pray that the Tucker household might, in a roundabout way, discover closure and peace figuring out this case is closed, and Mr. Myers will spend the remainder of his life in jail,” Ivey stated.
There have been a number of questions surrounding Myers’ case, his lawyer had argued. No bodily proof on the scene related him to the crime. Tucker recognized her assailant as a brief, stocky Black man however didn’t identify Myers or a neighbor because the attacker though they’d met a number of instances, in accordance with Myers’ son. Jurors voted 9-3 that he serve life in jail. Nonetheless, the decide sentenced Myers to loss of life below Alabama’s now-abolished system that allow judges resolve loss of life sentences.
Ivey stated there was “circumstantial proof” in opposition to Myers, however it’s “riddled with conflicting proof from seemingly everybody concerned.” A lot of the state’s case concerned a VCR taken from Tucker’s dwelling and whether or not Myers was the one that introduced it to a drug home to promote, in accordance with court docket information.
“God is answering prayers,” juror Mae Puckett, who now believes Myers is harmless and had urged Ivey to intervene.
“Governor Ivey put it again into the jury’s palms,” Puckett wrote.
Kacey Keeton, a lawyer for Myers, had stated that there have been a number of failures in Myers case, together with how an earlier lawyer deserted his case, inflicting him to overlook a deadline to boost points in federal court docket. Myers, who’s a Black, was convicted by an almost all-white jury.
“I’m undecided there are phrases sufficient to convey my pleasure, reduction, and gratitude at studying of Gov. Ivey’s determination to commute Mr. Myers’s sentence,” Keeton wrote in an electronic mail.
“I’ve represented Mr. Myers since 2007. As proof accrued of his innocence and the various injustices he skilled over the course of his case, I held out hope that he would sometime see some measure of justice, of mercy, of humanity.”
The final time an Alabama governor commuted a loss of life sentence was in 1999.
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