Casey McWhorter Executed For Robbery Murder

Casey McWhorter was executed by the State of Alabama for the robbery murder of Edward Lee Williams Sr.

According to court documents Casey McWhorter and two teenage accomplices, including the victim’s son, would force their way into the home of Edward Lee Williams Sr. who would be shot eleven times before his home was robbed

Casey McWhorter would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Casey McWhorter would be executed by lethal injection on November 16 2023

Casey McWhorter Execution

An Alabama inmate convicted of killing a man during a 1993 robbery when he was a teenager was executed Thursday by lethal injection.

Casey McWhorter, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said. McWhorter was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role in the robbery and shooting death of Edward Lee Williams, 34, on Feb. 18, 1993.

Prosecutors said McWhorter, who was three months past his 18th birthday at the time of the killing, conspired with two younger teenagers, including Williams’ 15-year-old son, to steal money and other items from Williams’ home and then kill him. The jury that convicted McWhorter recommended a death sentence by a vote of 10-2, which a judge, who had the final decision, imposed, according to court records. The younger teens — Edward Lee Williams Jr. and Daniel Miner, who was 16 — were sentenced to life in prison, according to court records.

“It’s kind of unfortunate that we had to wait so long for justice to be served, but it’s been served,” the victim’s brother, Bert Williams, told reporters after the execution. He added that the lethal injection provided McWhorter a peaceful death unlike the violent end his brother endured.

Prison officials opened the curtain to the execution chamber at 6:30 p.m. McWhorter, who was strapped to the gurney with the intravenous lines already attached, moved slightly at the beginning of the procedure, rubbing his fingers together, but his breathing slowed until it was no longer visible.

“I would like to say I love my mother and family,” McWhorter said in his final words. “I would like to say to the victim’s family I’m sorry. I hope you find peace.”

McWhorter also used his final words to take an apparent verbal jab at his executioner, the prison warden who faced domestic violence accusations decades ago, saying that, “it’s not lost on me that a habitual abuser of women is carrying out this procedure.”

Prosecutors said McWhorter and Miner went to the Williamses’ home with rifles and fashioned homemade silencers from a pillow and a milk jug. When the older Williams arrived home and discovered the teens, he grabbed the rifle held by Miner. They began to struggle over it, and McWhorter fired the first shot at Williams, according to a summary of the crime in court filings. Williams was shot a total of 11 times.

April Williams, the victim’s daughter, said her father today should be spending time with his grandchildren and enjoying retirement.

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him and how I miss him,” April Williams said in a statement read by Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm. “Casey McWhorter had several hours in that house to change his mind from taking the life of my Dad.”

Defense attorneys had unsuccessfully sought a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, citing McWhorter’s age at the time of the crime. They argued the death sentence was unconstitutional because Alabama law does not consider a person to be a legal adult until age 19.

McWhorter, who called himself a “confused kid” at the time of the slaying, said he would encourage young people going through difficult times to take a moment before making a life-altering mistake like he did.

“Anything that comes across them that just doesn’t sit well at first, take a few seconds to think that through,” he told The Associated Press in an interview last week. “Because one bad choice, one stupid mistake, one dumb decision can alter your life — and those that you care about — forever.” McWhorter maintained that he did not intend to kill Williams. Attorney General Steve Marshall said as Williams was on the ground wounded that McWhorter shot him in the head.

McWhorter spent nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row, making him among the longest-serving inmates of the state’s 165 death row inmates.

“Edward Lee Williams’ life was taken away from him at the hands of Casey A. McWhorter, and tonight, Mr. McWhorter answered for his actions,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

The Rev. Jeff Hood, a death row minister who works with an anti-death penalty group, accompanied McWhorter into the execution chamber as his spiritual adviser. “It is not lost on me that he was a murderer and so are all Alabamians tonight. I pray that we will all learn to stop killing each other,” Hood said in a statement.

The Alabama execution occurred the same night that Texas executed a man convicted of strangling a 5-year-old girl who was taken from a Walmart store nearly 22 years ago.

McWhorter was the second inmate put to death this year in Alabama after the state paused executions for several months to review procedures following a series of failed or problematic executions. James Barber, 64, was executed by lethal injection in July for the 2001 beating death of a woman.

Alabama plans in January to make the nation’s first attempt to put an inmate to death using nitrogen gas. Nitrogen hypoxia has been authorized as an execution method in Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi, but no state has used it.

https://apnews.com/article/alabama-death-penalty-lethal-injection-a491821db2a2a29e4e208ca127c071c7

Wallace Thomas Executed For Quenette Shehane Murder

Wallace Thomas was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Quenette Shehane

According to court documents Wallace Thomas and his accomplices would abduct Quenette Shehane from a convenience store. The twenty one year old woman would be sexually assaulted and murdered

Wallace Thomas would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Wallace Thomas would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 13 1990

Wallace Thomas Case

Condemned killer Wallace Norrell Thomas was put to death in a Friday the 13th execution after the Supreme Court refused to stay his sentence over concerns about Alabama’s problem-prone electric chair.

Thomas, sentenced to death for the 1976 slaying of Birmingham-Southern College student Quenette Shehane, was taken into the death chamber at Holman Prison shortly before midnight, strapped into the electric chair and pronouned dead at 12:19 a.m. CDT, prison officials said

The Supreme Court refused late Thursday to stay the execution, with anti-death penalty Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissenting.

In seeking a stay, Thomas’s lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, argued that Alabama’s electric chair, built by an inmate 60 years ago at the prison, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because it is obsolete and improperly operated.

A similar argument was used in Florida last month to indefinitely postpone the execution of condemned ‘black widow’ killer Judi Buenoano. Defense lawyers argued that Florida’s electric chair was faulty and could amount to cruel and unusual punishment because it malfunctioned during a previous execution

Wallace Thomas was the 133rd person executed in the United States and the eighth in Alabama since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

His execution was the 13th in the nation in 1990.

In a hearing before a federal judge in Mobile earlier this week, Stevenson cited the botched execution last year of Horace Dunkins, who had to be given a second jolt of electricity because prison officials connected the chair improperly on the first attempt. In 1983 it took three jolts to execute John Louis Evans III when one of the chair’s leather leg straps broke.

Prison officials have said Thomas’s execution likely will be the last for the garish yellow chair, dubbed ‘Yellow Mama’ by the inmates. The state has ordered a new electric chair, and it is expected to be in place before the next execution.

Prison spokesman John Hale said Thomas appeared to be in good spirits in the hours leading up to the execution, visiting with relatives for much of the day. ‘I was talking to the deputy warden earlier and he said Thomas was joking about different things and his attitude was good,’ he said.

During his stay in Holman Prison near Atmore, Thomas helped found ‘Project Hope,’ an anti-death penalty group that helps reconcile condemned inmates with their families.

His victim’s mother, Miriam Shehane, founded the victims’ rights group Victims of Crime and Leniency after her daughter’s death and now works in the Montgomery district attorney’s office assisting crime victims.

Shehane said executing killers can ‘ease the pain’ of the victims’ families. ‘That’s not revenge. That’s justice.’

Quenette Shehane, who was 21, was abducted by three men when she drove to a convenience store near the campus to buy salad dressing. She was then driven to an isolated area and shot to death and her body left in a roadside ditch.

Wallace Thomas was arrested more than a month later while fleeing a convenience store robbery. Tests indicated the gun used in the robbery was the same weapon that killed Shehane. Thomas’s palm print was also found on the victim’s car, and he gave a friend a television stolen from the vehicle.

Two other men were convicted in Shehane’s death and given life sentences

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/07/13/Convicted-killer-executed-in-Alabama/6146647841600/

Cornelius Singleton Executed For Sister Ann Hogan Murder

Cornelius Singleton was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of a Nun

According to court documents Cornelius Singleton would come across Sister Ann Hogan who was praying at a cemetery. The woman would be beaten and strangled before she was robbed

Cornelius Singleton would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Cornelius Singleton would be executed by way of the electric chair on November 20 1992

Cornelius Singleton Photos

Cornelius Singleton alabama

Cornelius Singleton Case

Cornelius Singleton was executed in Alabama’s electric chair early Friday for the 1977 robbery and murder of a Roman Catholic nun who was attacked as she prayed in a Mobile cemetery.

Singleton, 36, of Mobile, was convicted of the slaying of Sister Ann Hogan.

Warden Charlie Jones said Singleton was taken to the electric chair at Holman Prison near Atmore around midnight Thursday.

‘He asked his brother Vincent, who was in the viewing room, to tell his mother that he loved her,’ Jones said. ‘He told his friends that were in the viewing room to keep their chins up, not be down, and that he loved all of them.’

Jones was allowed five witnesses, among them his brother, a minister, the Rev. Cleveland Smith, and the Rev. Tom Weise, a Catholic priest.

Eight other witnesses were in the viewing room, including four members of the news media.

After Singleton was taken into the execution room, there was some talk to him from the viewing room, which he was unable to hear, Jones said.

‘His brother asked him to be his angel, that he loved him, and gave him a thumbs-up signal,’ Jones said

Jones said Singleton received 2,100 volts of electricity for 20 seconds followed by 250 volts for 100 seconds and was prounounced dead at 12:20 a.m.

The body was taken by state officials to Mobile, where it later will be turned over to Singleton’s family.

Jones said Singleton refused a last meal at 6 p.m. Thursday and had visitors most of the day Thursday until 10:30 p.m.

‘The visitors were close family members, brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, and some religious groups,’ Jones said. ‘He visited most all day yesterday.’

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/11/20/Alabama-executes-Cornelius-Singleton/9537722235600/

Larry Heath Executed For Rebecca Heath Murder

Larry Heath was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Rebecca Heath

According to court documents Larry Heath wanted to marry his new girlfriend however he was still married to Rebecca Heath. So Larry would hire two men to kill her. The two men would abduct Rebecca Heath who was brought to a remote location and murdered

Larry Heath would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Larry Heath would be executed via the electric chair on March 20 1992

Larry Heath Case

A man who admitted hiring two men to kill his pregnant wife so that he could marry another woman was executed early today in Alabama’s electric chair.

Larry Gene Heath, 40 years old, made no last attempt to appeal his death sentence for the 1981 slaying of Rebecca Heath.

Gov. Guy Hunt on Tuesday denied a request for clemency from Mr. Heath’s supporters, including a group of ministers. Friends at Holman Prison called him the “Death Row Apostle” because he had claimed to have undergone a religious conversion in prison. Secret Engagement

Prosecutors said Mr. Heath, who was secretly engaged to another woman, had persuaded his 21-year-old wife, who was nine months pregnant, to cosign a $2,000 home-improvement loan. He used the loan to pay for her murder, the prosecutors said.

She was abducted from their home in Phenix City, Ala., and shot in the head. Her body was found in Georgia. The male fetus also died.

The men hired by Mr. Heath were convicted and given life sentences.

Mr. Heath was arrested four days after the killing. He pleaded guilty to murder in Georgia in February 1982 and was sentenced to life in prison.

In January 1983, a jury in Alabama convicted him of murder and a judge sentenced him to die.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected “double jeopardy” arguments that Mr. Heath could not be sentenced to death in one state after being given a life sentence for the same crime in another state.

Varnall Weeks Executed For Mark Batts Murder

Varnall Weeks was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of Mark Batts

According to court documents Varnall Weeks would rob and murder college student Mark Batts. Weeks would flee the scene and was involved in a shootout with police where an Officer was badly injured

Varnall Weeks would be convicted and sentenced to death

Varnall Weeks would be executed via the electric chair on May 12 1995

Varnall Weeks Case

Varnall Weeks, a convicted killer described by psychiatric experts as a paranoid schizophrenic who believed he would come back to life as a giant flying tortoise that would rule the world, was put to death this morning in Alabama’s electric chair.

The 43-year-old Mr. Weeks, who robbed and murdered a college student in 1981, was executed at 12:09 A.M. at the state prison in Atmore, Ala., over the protests of human rights advocates.

Mr. Weeks once described himself to a judge as God and on another occasion sat in a courtroom with a domino tied to his head. Back in the 1970’s he spent six months in a mental hospital. And he was found by prosecution and defense experts alike to be mentally ill.

But while allowing that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, Alabama courts ruled that he was sane enough to execute. And on Thursday the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in 1986 that execution of a mentally incompetent convict is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, unanimously rejected his request for a stay. The effect was to let stand lower court findings that although Mr. Weeks was mentally ill, he was not mentally incompetent, since, the courts held, he understood that he had been convicted of a crime and that this was why he had been sentenced to die

But Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, in Atlanta, said Mr. Weeks had clearly been unaware of what went on around him in courtrooms.

“He babbled,” Mr. Bright said. “He flitted from one idea to another. An average person does not sit in court with a domino tied to his head with a string.”

Mr. Weeks was put to death for robbing and murdering Mark Anthony Batts, 24, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1981, when Mr. Batts was studying veterinary science at Tuskegee Institute. Mr. Weeks fled the scene but was arrested in Ohio after a gun battle in which one police officer was badly wounded.

His unusual behavior in the years since included standing naked in his prison cell and screaming at the walls. He also once told a judge that he had heard the voice of God in thunder and that he welcomed death as an adventure in which he would rule all humankind as a godlike tortoise. Psychiatrists said he lived in a maze of delusions.

“My brother is insane, and he’s been insane ever since childhood,” Lester Weeks told The Associated Press. “What is this country coming to? Are we going back to the witching days when we kill and burn people for being insane?

Mr. Bright said Mr. Weeks had been sacrificed to the nation’s get-tough-on-crime posture. In addition, he pointed out that of the 12 people executed in Alabama since the state resumed the death penalty in 1983, eight, including Mr. Weeks, were black. “That tells you something isn’t right,” he said.

But David Dearden, the police officer who was badly wounded in the Ohio shootout, and who spent 30 days in a hospital as a result, told The Associated Press that he had no compunction about Mr. Weeks’s execution.

“Fry him,” Mr. Dearden said