Alabama to execute man condemned when judge overrode jury [View all]
Source: Associated Press
Kim Chandler, Associated Press
Updated 8:20 pm, Wednesday, December 7, 2016
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) An Alabama man convicted of killing a store clerk is scheduled to be executed Thursday, but lawyers for the former Eagle Scout are urging it be blocked because a judge overrode a jury recommendation in imposing the death sentence.
Forty-five-year-old Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., is set to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. CST Thursday for the Nov. 8, 1994, shooting death of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. It would be Alabama's second execution this year if carried out.
Lawyers for Smith and the state submitted a flurry of last court filings to the state over whether a judge should have sentenced Smith to death when a jury recommended life imprisonment. Smith's attorneys have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block the planned execution to review the judge's override.
A jury convicted Smith of capital murder in 1995 and recommended life imprisonment by a 7-5 vote, but the judge sentenced Smith to death.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Alabama-prepares-to-carry-out-second-execution-of-10780961.php
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