Another inmate's confession halts execution {in AL}

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: AP/CNN

MOBILE, Alabama (AP) -- The Alabama Supreme Court postponed executing a man after an inmate claimed in an sworn statement to defense attorneys that he committed the murder that sent the condemned man to death row.

The justices in a 5-4 vote late Wednesday stopped the execution by injection of Thomas Arthur "pending further orders of this Court."

Arthur, 66, was scheduled to die Thursday, more than 26 years after he was convicted of killing Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals.

It was the third time Arthur received a stay on the eve of his execution.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/alabama.execution.ap/index.html

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They have a **CONFESSION** and the vote was 5-4 ?? :wtf:

[geomon666]

1. This is a weird case.

One guy confesses to doing the murder. The woman who hired the killer says no, it's not him it's the guy waiting on death row. What a mess.

[Spangle]

5. Weird CASE is correct

When I checked it out, I couldn't believe stuff like that could still be going on.

Seems there is evidence in the case that has been ignored. And at this point, the courts don't have to consider it, even if it proves him innocent. All because he didn't have a lawyer to file the proper paperwork.

Of course, now days they can do lots of stuff with the DNA evidence.

After finding that out, it really bothered me. I mean, I don't hae a problem with a death sentence. But I would want to make sure he is the one. Something about the possiblity of a murder walking around out there... I never feel the need to ignore evidence. I want to make sure.

The article says that judy said he did it. But these sites say she claimed under oath that he did not.

This is what I looked at today.
http://www.thomasarthurfightforlife.com/casehistory.html

http://www.thomasarthurfightforlife.com/

Maybe it was a good thing this was haulted. they will have to check out all their evidence now.

[blackspade]

2. This is what gets me

**But Wicker's widow, who served 10 years of a life sentence for hiring the killer, told attorney general investigators that she never met Gilbert.

"I hired and paid money to Thomas Arthur, not Bobby Gilbert, to kill Troy Wicker," Judy Wicker said in a statement Monday.**

The prosicutor calls this an injustice to the mudered mans family and the person who contracted the killer is out after 10 yeras of a life sentence. Total hyperbole.
She should still be locked up.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. So, did Arthur know Gilbert? Did he sub-contract, to put an extra

layer of distance between the originator of the contract and the target?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. Silly Liberal...

Don't you know "Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached." - Antonin Scalia, 1993