Alabama Executions
Alabama Executions
In 2007, Alabama executed three men: Luther Williams, Aaron Jones, and Darrell Grayson. Mr. Williams, who is black, was executed on August 23, 2007, for the murder of a white man. Mr. Grayson, who is black, was executed on July 26, 2007, for the murder of a white woman. Mr. Jones, who is black, was executed on May 3, 2007, for the murder of a white woman.
Luther Williams, who is black, was convicted and sentenced to death in Tuscaloosa County for the robbery-murder of a white man after a trial in which a racially-charged and highly prejudicial statement was admitted in evidence against Mr. Williams. The statement was contained in a file from Mr. Williams’s psychological evaluation that his trial lawyer did not bother to read or review prior to trial. The courts found that this failure, and defense counsel’s failure to present testimony from witnesses who observed first-hand that Mr. Williams had been abandoned as a child by both of his parents, was whipped by his step-father, and was locked out of the house for days at a time and left to survive in the streets, did not amount to ineffective assistance of counsel. The courts also found that evidence from eyewitnesses who saw someone else driving the victim’s truck on the night of the crime and who knew the State’s key witness to be a liar would not have made a difference at Mr. Williams’s trial.
Darrell Grayson and his ten brothers and sisters grew up extremely poor in a violent, chaotic home. When he was accused of capital murder at age 20, he had no money to hire a lawyer or obtain expert assistance for his capital murder trial. His appointed lawyer conceded in closing argument to the jury at the penalty phase that “this is a death by electrocution case.” After he was convicted and sentenced to death, new scientific developments in DNA led Mr. Grayson to file a lawsuit against the State of Alabama seeking access to potentially exculpatory biological evidence that was used against him at trial. Although new DNA testing could have conclusively proven that an identifiable third party unconnected to Mr. Grayson committed the rape that is at the heart of the State’s theory of the crime, the courts denied Mr. Grayson access to the evidence and permitted him to be executed.
Aaron Jones was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1978 killing of Carl and Willene Nelson in rural Blount County, Alabama. His conviction was overturned after Alabama’s death penalty statute was held unconstitutional in 1980 and he was convicted and sentenced to death following a second trial in 1982. At the second trial, he was represented by Jack G. Davis, now deceased, and George M. Boles, whose referral to Mr. Jones using a racist epithet was tolerated by the state courts and Eleventh Circuit on appeal. The Eleventh Circuit held that Boles’s secretary’s testimony that he told her “that nig*** is going to fry” was not sufficient evidence “to support Jones’s allegation that Boles’s alleged racist attitude toward him affected Boles’s representation to the extent that Jones was denied the right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.” Jones v. Campbell, 436 F.3d 1285, 1304-05 (11 Cir. 2006). Boles began working on Jones’s case only a few days before trial. He and Mr. Davis failed to present evidence that the victims were already dead before Mr. Jones inflicted any wounds and, at the sentencing phase, presented only Mr. Jones’s testimony in his own behalf about a prior conviction. No evidence of Mr. Jones’s mental illness or testimony from his family and friends was presented to persuade the jury that Mr. Jones should not be sentenced to death.